> 



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i 



i^ife a distinguished Services 



OF 



William McKinley 



Our Martyr President 



INCLUDING A FULL ACCOUNT OF HIS ILLUSTRIOUS LIFE AND 

TRAGIC DEATH. A GRAND CAREER ILLUMINED BY 

FAITHFUL SERVICE AND NOBLE LIVING 



MEMORIAL EDITION 



By MURAT HALSTEAD 

FAMOUS JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR 



WITH INTRODUCTION BY 

SENATOR CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 

AND SPECIAI, CHAPTERS BY 

General C H. Grosvenor, Colonel Albert Halstead and 
THE L,ATE Secretary of State John Sherman 



ENLARGED TO INCLUDE AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRESIDENT'S 
DEATH AND BURIAL ^ 

By A. J. MUNSON 

Author and Editor 



ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY HALFTONE VIEWS 
AND PORTRAITS 



MEMORIAI. ASSOCIATION 

Publishers 



I. 






\ 



> 



/ 



/ 



,4> ' 

Copy 'Zj 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copita Rec«ived 

OCT. 10 ^901 

COPVRKJHT rjm»v 

CLASS rz>xxo, N*. 

/ r C ^7- 

COPY A. 



Copyright, 1901, by H. L. Barber. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

ON the day before Major McKinley was nom- 
inated for the Presidency, an artist distin- 
guished for the fetching touch of his penci.i 
in catching and fixing likenesses in a few lines, stood 
in the door of a room where the Major was seated, 
and never having before seen the famous face, was 
regarding it with personal and professional intensity, 
when an acquaintance approached him and said, 
" Have you been introduced to the Governor ?" 
" No," said the artist ; " not yet, presently gladly. 
Let me study him a moment unbeknown, just 
as he is. Why there is no picture that does him 
justice. I am right glad to see him when he has no 
idea of a possible sketch, and no thought of himself. 
I did not think so, but he is a great man. He is 
splendid, and there is no one like him in the country. 
Why did any one ever say he was not a strong man ?" 
The artist perceived at a glance what all who study 
Major McKinley find out — that he is a strong man 
and a great one. He is a fortunate combination of 
excellent, admirable, and lovable traits and qualities. 
Alike in his boyish patriotism, adventure and bravery 
in war, and the experiences of his mature years in 

9 



X * 



10 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

the National Congress, and the straightforward dis 
charge of executive duty as Governor of a great StatCj 
there has been the heroic simplicity, unselfish and 
constant, that has attracted the attention and populai 
favor of ever-widening circles of his fellow-citizens, 
until his glory has become a precious possession of 
the American people, and inspired with it they did 
not wait for the stated organizations to move, before 
they proclaimed in many unmistakable ways that he 
was their candidate for the Presidency, and the 
National Convention of the Republican party, as a 
representative assembly, ratified the j^ublic will. The 
life of McKiuley shows the stronger and more 
graceful lines with greater strength and grace the 
better it is known. The office of his biographer is 
one of grateful satisfaction. His record is clear. 
There is no line for love to lament or for charity to 
cover — no chapter for the advocate to blot or the 
diplomat to obscure. This is one of the rarest of 
lives, shining in every part with the inner light of the 
truth that is honor's self; and the radiance of un- 
clouded day reveals only stainless symmetry, and the 
harmony of open motives with consummate achieve- 
ment. He could not advance to the elevation he 
occupies without encountering enmity and combat- 
ting imputation ; but no charge was ever contrived 
that he had other fault than that of friendliness per- 
haps too forgiving, or of confidence too generous. 
He is a man who will go on growing in the 
affection of the gentle and the estimation of the 



ume. In presenting the story of the martyr 
president's Hfe, the pubHshers have sought the 
aid of some of the men who knew him best, and 
who have generously added valuable information 
to the great storehouse possessed by the author. 

A portion of this volume was written by Mr. 
Halstead, at the time Mr. McKinley was first nom- 
inated for the presidency," and being here pre- 
sented as then written it shows the wonderful ac- 
curacy of the author's prophecy at that time and 
how the estimate he then placed on Mr. McKin- 
ley's popularity and ability has been verified by 
later events and the action of the people. 

No writer is as well qualified to write of Mr. 
McKinley's life and work as is Mr. Halstead. 
Not only was he personally and intimately ac- 
quainted with Mr. McKinley during the latter's 
public career, but for half a century he has been 
engaged in making through the press a public 
record of current events. During half of that 
time Mr. McKinley was in active public life and 
his advancement and leadership were observed by 
the author with the keenest interest. It is hoped 
the book will aid in commemorating the noble 
life of the martyr president. 

The Publishers.' 



x; 



PUBLISHERS' INTRODUCTION. 

Our country has been singularly fortunate in 
having had, at nearly all times, some one states- 
man whose honesty and wisdom strengthened him 
to check the disturbing elements of mere poli- 
ticians, and guide them in channels where serious 
harm could not be done. On the republic's scroll 
of fame there is no name that shines with greater 
lustre because of these qualities than that of 
William McKinley. A statesman of many parts, 
and capable in all, whose ear was ever attuned to 
the voice of the people, and whose deepest solici- 
tude was their welfare, he was an ideal leader in 
whom the people trusted, and in whom faith was 
not abused. 

The career of William McKinley was exem- 
plary. His personal virtue, his purity of charac- 
ter, his honesty of motive, his patriotic purpose, 
his loyalty to right, his love of justice, his spirit 
of mercy, endeared him to the people, so that 
when he was struck down by the assassin they 
felt the blow as if it had been struck at them- 
selves. 

The record of such a life and such a career de- 
serves a permanent form as is given by this vol- 



f 7 



AUTllOLrS I'llEFACE 11 

judicious. The potency of liis character and intel- 
lect and the kindliness of his heart, declare in his 
presence, that the favorite disparagements in which 
his assailants indulge, the conventional accusations of 
partisan warftire, are but fictions that are frivolous. 
The verdict of the artist, that he is a strong, great 
man, will be confirmed by all the people, when the 
performance of the task they appoint for him becomes 
history. 

MURAT HaLSTEAD. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGB 

Publisher's introduction 7 

Author's preface 9 

Introduction 18 

Chaptek I. Personal sketch of Hon. William McKinley by Hon. 
John Sherman 27 

Chapter II. Ancestry— Youth :;n the army — Student of law — 
Prosecuting attorney — Home life 42 

Chapter III. McKinley in Congress — The rapid growth of his 
national reputation — Became the champion of protection — 
First in a National Convention 63 

Chapter IV. First experience as a candidate for the Presi- 
dency — Trying times and personal triumph in Chicago — Pros- 
perity under th& McKinley law — Gerrymandered out of Con- 
gress — Governor of Ohio 77 

Chapter V. McKinley's career in few words— The charm of his 
personal character — His habits of labor — Devotion to friends 
and family 99 

Chapter VI. McKinley not a man of one idea — His superior dis- 
tinction as a Protectionist has caused him to be erroneously 
accused of exclusive devotion to that subject — The great 
range of his public speeches and addresses— A superb tribute 

from General Grosvenor, giving a list of subjects 121 

12 



CONTENTS 13 



PAGE 



Chapter VII. McEanley on Civic Patriotism— Address at 
Rochester, N. Y.— Studying conditions of government- 
Public opinion the basis— Zeal after election— The people's 
business— Duty of business men— Manufacturing interests— 
Our best market — An extraordinary spectacle 134 

Chapter VIII. The lessons of heroic lives— McKinley a patriot 
—Oration— Piety and patriotism — Lessons of heroism— Influ- 
ences of Chautauqua— A fighting patriot— The grand review 
— A generous eulogy — Illustrious names 167 

Chapter IX. McKinley and money— Nominated for Governor 
—The sound money battle— A full dollar— Not willing to 
chance it— Two yard-sticks — Struggle against inflation — A 
high compliment— Opposed to unlimited coinage— Treasury 
Report I'^S 

Chapter X. The Money Standard questions have been settled 
in and by the Republican party — Silver legislation in brief- 
How the country was saved from the silver standard- John 
Sherman and William McKinley have marched together— 
The Hon. Charles Emory Smith's exposition of this question 
—The unexampled supply of gold is solving the money ques- 
tions for the people and abolishing its isSiie 194 

Chapter XI. William McKinley as a campaigner— Speaking to 
fifteen millions of people— Making one thousand speeches- 
Constitution of iron— Wondrous vitality— Magnetic power— 
Excellent memory— Good listener— Making converts- 
Policy of Protection the hope of America 226 

Chapter XII. McKinley's advice to boys— The enterprising 
boy— Interviewing Major McKinley— Boy's own account of 



CONTENTS 

/ PAGE 

It— Painting up the town— Looks like Napoleon— Fatherly 
advice— An important question 241 

Chapter XIII. The contrasted conditions— Between Repub- 
lican protection and prosperity and Democratic meddling, 
disorganizing industry and forcing hard times, displayed in 
speeches by McKinley in 1892 and in 1895— A plea in Boston 
for protection and prosperity 253 

Chapter XIV. Some views on public questions — Humorous 
speeches— The feeder of Great Britain— A leap in the dark- 
Give the officials scope — Importance of agriculture— Arbitra- 
tion— Respect and retrospect— Let England take care of her- 
self •. 296 

Chapter XV. Liberty and Labor 313 

Chapter XVI. Mrs. McKinley at home— The great Protection- 
ist's wife— Strong despite physical weakness- Shares all her 
husband's burdens— "Ever happy when surrounded by 
friends, children and roses" 339 

Chapter XVII. The St. Louis Convention— The organization 
and speeches of the presiding officers — The platform — The 
nominating speeches and ballots nominating the candidates 
for President and Vice-President 355 

Chapter XVIII. McKinley on the day of his nomination— His 
good nerve and thoughtful courtesies— He was quiet through 
the storm and gave the good news with kisses to his wife and 
mother 40g 

Chapter XIX. Major McKinley acknowledges and accepts his 
nomination 422 



CONTENTS. 15 



PA8E 



Chapter XX. Salient extracts from Major McKinley'a ad- 
dresses to representative delegations 454 

Chaptek XXI. McKinley's inaugural address-A lofty appeal 
to all patriotic Americans for the prompt solution of the 
great and pressing problems of the National Government... . 475 

Chapteb XXII. McKinley's later days-Elected and inaugu- 
rated President a second time— Triumphal tour through the 
South and the West, ended by Mrs. McKinley's illness 491 

Chapter XXIII. President McKinley's assassination-Presi- 
dent's visit to the Pan-American Exposition— His great 
speech— Shot by Anarchist Leon Czolgosz— A week in the 
balance 



Chapter XXIV. Death of President McKinley-Dies peace- 
fully at 2:15 a. m., Saturday, September 14— Fond fareweU 
of husband and wife— Last words, "Nearer, My God, to 
Thee." 

Chapter XXV. Burial of President McKinley-Private Funeral 
Services— Lying in state at Buffalo and Washington-Inter- 
ment at Canton 



501 



517 



565 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



FAQB 



Theodore Roosevelt ) Frontispieces 

Wm. McKinley ) ^ 

MeKinley at Eighteen 21 . 

McKinley When Elected to Congress 22 

Hon. Wm. McKinley's Residence 39 

Hon. Wm. McKinley in His Study 40 

Mrs. William McKinley 57 

Mrs. McKinley's Room 58 

Hon Wm. McKinley's Father 75 

Hon. Wm. McKinley's Mother 76 

Residence of the Late J. A. Stanton, Mrs. McKinley's Father. . . 93 

First M. E. Church at Canton 94 

The White House Ill 

East Front of the Capitol 112 

Department of State 129 

Convention Hall, St. Louis, Mo 130 

Republican Convention Hall at Philadelphia 147 

Hon. John Sherman , 148 

Hon. Thomas B. Reed 165 

Hon. Chauncey M. Depew 166 

Hon. Matthew Stanley Quay 183 

Hon. Stephen B. Elkins 184 

Hon. Chas. Emory Smith 201 

Hon. Levi P. Morton 202 

Hon. Mark Hanna 219 

Hon. C. H. Grosvenor : 220 

Hon. Geo. F. Hoar 237 

16 



ILLUSTRATIONS 17 

PAGE 

Hr i, W. B. Allison 238 

y on. Benjamin Harrison 255 

£[on. R. Proctor 256 

Late Vice-President Garret A. Hobart 273 

Senator Wm. E. Mason 271 

Senator Cushman K. Davis ^ 291 

Senator Henry C. Lodge 292 

Andrew Carnegie 3Qg 

Hon. Hazen S. Pingree 3j^0 

Hon. E. O. Wolcott 327 

Hon. John Wanamaker 328 

Hon. Lyman J. Gage 3,^5 

Hon. John D. Long 346 

Gen. Lew Wallace ; 3g3 

Ex-Secretary of State Day 364 

Hon. William P. Frye 38i 

S. P. Dole, Ex President Hawaiian Republic 382 

Murat Halstead 399 

President and His War Cabinet 400 

Military Heroes of Santiago 417 

Naval Heroes of Santiago. 418 



J- 



INTRODUCTION. 

MAJOR WILLIAM McKINLEY requires 
no introduction to the people of the 
United States. His name and fame are 
in every American home. It is well that the details 
of a career so full of inspiration should be put in 
permanent form, and this has been admirably done 
in this volume by the accomplished author. Public 
men fade rapidly from even contemporary memory. 
Only those who are so identified with a great cause 
or principle, that the man and the measure are one 
in the popular mind, can hope to survive the tread 
of the ever advancing column of the ambitious and 
successful. This rare distinction belonged fifty 
years ago to Henry Clay and now to Governor 
McKiuley. Protection for American industries and 
McKinley are synonymous terms. 

"yroes and statesmen are admired and loved for 
some striking characteristic. General Jackson has 

18 



INTRO DUCT 10. \ J!> 

been the idol of a great party for more than half a 
century, not for the ideas he gave the organization, 
but because he was " Old Hickory." " I will fight 
it out on this line if it takes all summer," expressed 
the indomitable and resistless purpose of Grant. 
The immortal speech at Gettysburg condensed the 
patriotism and patlios of Lincoln. The triumph of 
McKinley over obstacles in a career which would 
have been insurmountable for a weaker man has 
been due to his absolute sincerity and loyalty. His 
clear brain and warm heart are always in accord. 
His sentiment is subordinate to his judgment, but 
when his mind is made up his emotional nature gives 
a contagious enthusiasm to his efforts which secures 
devoted followers and lends a living interest to the 
discussion of the driest subjects. 

A boy of eighteen, teaching school to earn money 
for a college education and deeply imbued with the 
intense anti-slavery and union sentiment of Ohio, he 
followed the flag to the front when Lincoln called 
for volunteers. As soon as he was satisfied that lib- 
erty and the Republic could only be saved by fight- 
ing for them, his life belonged to his country. It is 
always difficult to rise from the ranks, and for a 
beardless boy well-nigh impossible. But in the 
eighteen months during which he carried a musket 
he was attracting the attention of the officers of his 
regiment — and such a regiment ! Its Colonel, Gen- 
eral Rosecrans, was promoted to the command of the 
Armies of the Tennessee and the Cumberland. Its 



•JO INTEODUCTION 

Lieutenant - Colonel, Stanley Matthews, became 
United States Senator and one of the Judges of that 
august tribunal, the Supreme Court. Its Major, 
Rutherford B. Hayes, was elected Governor of Ohio 
and President of the United States, and soon the 
successor of Hayes in the Majority of the gallant 
Twenty-third will also be the Chief Magistrate of 
this Republic. Our army was retreating down the 
Valley of Virginia ; brigade after brigade of ex- 
hausted troops passed a battery of four guns which 
had been abandoned in the road. " The boys will 
haul them," said McKinley, and responding to his 
call and example his comrades did. He was in a safe 
place as Commissary Sergeant, two miles from the field 
at the Battle of Antietam. His business was to 
guard the rations until called for. Soldiers fight far 
better on full than empty stomachs, and so thought 
this fearless and practical Commissary Sergeant, and 
as evening fell two mule wagons loaded with food 
and hot coffee were going, under heavy fire from the 
enemy, straight for the boys at the front, and the 
driver of the first wagon, and the one which got 
through, was Sergeant McKinley. He was the staff 
officer selected to carry an order to a regiment in a 
perilous position to join the main column. It was 
believed that no one could ride across the enemy's 
front and reach his destination alive. The gallant 
Major never hesitated, but quietly and quickly 
obeyed orders and saved the regiment. These battle 
incidents, selected from many, indicate and reveal the 



» 




I 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT, 




PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKIXLEY. 




Mckinley at eigmieen. 




WILLIAM McKINLEV WHEN ELECTED TO CONGRESS. 



lN'l'lU)i)l ( TION ^3 

man, never fool-luuvly nor )>oastful nor rash, but 
with intuitive genius grasping the situation and with 
serene confidence meeting wisely its requirements, 
regardless of consequences or perils to himself. 

Governor McKinley was born and has passed his 
life in that manufacturing district of his native 
State which is a hive of varied industries. From 
early youth he has witnessed and felt the seasons 
of employment and idleness which come to the work- 
ers in mills and factories. He had participated with 
his play-fellows and companions in the joyous con- 
ditions which attend the humming spindles, the 
whirl of machinery, and the blaze of the furnaces, 
and his heart had been wrung by association with 
strong men suffering and seeking only work, and 
their sons no longer able to be at the district school. 
He pondered deeply over the questions suggested by 
such occurrences, and eagerly sought remedies for 
the fluctuations which involved capital and labor and 
the employers and employes in common ruin. With 
Washington and Hamilton, with Webster and Clay, 
he came, not alone, as they did, by the cold deduc- 
tions of reason, but also by observation and experi- 
ence, to the conclusion that the solution of our in- 
dustrial problems and the salvation of our productive 
industries could only be had by the policy of a Pro- 
tective Tariff. As Union and Liberty had been the 
inspiration of his courage and sacrifices as a soldier, 
so now America for Americans became the active 
princijr' " his efforts as a citizen. A century of 



24 INTRODUCTION 

discussion had not enlivened tariff debates. Tliey 
were the preserves of the " dry-as-dust " speaker and 
the dread of the orator. This question has been for 
a century the foremost one in platforms and legisla- 
tion, but worn threadbare in debate. When Con- 
gressman McKinley appeared upon the floor of the 
House of Representatives to voice the aspirations of 
American labor for work and wages it was like Paul 
preaching to the Gentiles. The best brains of the 
country had been advocating the principle, but now 
brain and heart were united in the cause. Had 
McKinley done nothing else his popular discussions 
of tariff questions in Congress, on the stump, and 
before college commencements would have earned for 
him the recognition and gratitude of his country- 
men. His audiences at once learn that they are 
not listening to a declaimer or a commentator upon 
academic theories, but they are roused to wild enthu- 
siasm by the passion and earnestness, the convictions 
and pleadings of a sincere man, who both knows and 
feels the wisdom and necessity of the principles he 
advocates. No man could talk so ably, so often, and 
so entertainingly upon this well-worn theme unless 
he was broad-minded and versatile. 

The fame of Governor McKinley as the most cap- 
tivating orator on protection issues of this generation 
has obscured his merits as a speaker of eminence 
and power upon a wide range of topics. Whether 
the theme is patriotic or educational, religious or 
secular, a discriminating eulogy upon a departed 



J.XTKODUCTION 25 

statesman or an address before farmers or journalists, 
we find in the speeches of Mr. McKinley the same 
thoughtful, courageous, sincere, and lucid thinker. 

The sweetest and tenderest word in our language 
is home. The source and centre of all the saving 
and helpful influences which form American char- 
acter and determine American action come from the 
family and fireside. No man could hope to repre- 
sent our people who failed to embody in his life and 
in popular appreciation this ideal. Our hearts and 
sympathies are with lovers, young or old, who are 
pure and true. The Major is both a young and old 
lover, and always a lover. The young lady, educated, 
accomplished, and beautiful, seeking to do something 
useful in her father's bank, saw the handsome, frank 
young soldier — a lawyer now — pass day by day, and 
he in turn noticed this girl, so different from her 
companions in the earnest purposes of her life. 
Heaven blessed the union, and in the early, happy 
days two children came to brighten their home. 
First one and then the other was called, and their 
loss broke the mother's health. The cares of public 
life, the anxieties of political fortunes, and the 
triumphs of a brilliant career have never for one 
moment distracted or disturbed the tender solicitude 
and affectionate devotion of this best of husbands to 
the most self-sacrificing, helpful, and appreciative of 
wives. They are a beautiful example of wedded 
confidence, and their domestic life a splendid type of 
the American home. 



:i6 



INTRODUCTION 



Our people have always been fortunate in the can- 
didates presented for their suffrages for that highest 
position on earth — the Presidency of the United 
States. They never have had a better example of 
the results of American liberty and opportunity than 
this brilliant and faithful soldier, this industrious and 
honest citizen, this wise and practical statesman, this 
sincere and loyal husband and friend — William 
McKinley. 



CHAPTER I. 

PEBiOIfXL SKETCH OF HON. WILLIAM MCKINLEY, 
BY HON. JOHN SHERMAN. 

BY request I write this sketch of the life and 
traits of Hon. William McKiiiley, nominee 
of the Republican party for the high office of 
President of the United States. 

He was born at Niles, Ohio, January 29th, 1848, 
and is, therefore, just past fifty-three years of age. He 
is now in the prime of vigorous manhood, and his 
powers of endurance are not excelled by any Ameri- 
can of his age. The best evidence of this is the 
many campaigns which he has made during his public 
life in behalf of the Republican party. He has 
proved his ability and endurance by the number 
and perfection of the speeches which he has 
delivered. 

His education, for reasons that could not be sur- 
mounted, was limited to the public schools of Ohio, 
and to a brief academic course in Allegheny College. 
He taught school in the country and accumulated the 
small means necessary to defray the expenses of that 
sort of education. This is the kind of schooling that 

27 



a« INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

has produced many of the most eminent Americans 
in public and private life. 

McKinley entered the Union Army in June, 1861, 
enlisting in the Twenty-Third Ohio Infantry, when 
a little more than seventeen years of age. This was 
a noted regiment. Among its earlier field officers 
may be mentioned General W. S. Rosecrans, Gen- 
eral Scammon, General Stanley Matthews, General 
Rutherford B. Hayes, General Comley, and many 
other conspicuous men. He served during the entire 
war, rising from the position of a private to the rank 
of major. He was a soldier on the front line, served 
in battles, marches, bivouacs and campaigns, and 
received the official commendation of his superior 
officers on very many occasions. He returned to 
Ohio with a record of which any young man might 
well be proud, and to which the old soldiers of the 
country point with enthusiasm now that he is 
honored by a presidential nomination. There are 
in the United States at this time more than a million 
soldiers of the late war who served on the Union 
side, still living and voting, and they have sons and 
their relatives, all of whom, taken in the aggregate, 
become a power in a presidential election. His 
military career, while he was not in high command, 
is full of heroic incidents, which are proven not only 
by contemporaneous publications in the newspapers, 
but by official reports of his superior officers. He 
was not only a gallant soldier, full of endurance and 
personal energy, but he was the calm, judicious stafi 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 29 

officer, who won the commendations of his superiors 
by the exhibition of good judgment and wise adminis- 
trative capacity. 

Returning from the war he found it necessary to 
choose his employment for life, and without further 
schooling he entered earnestly upon the study of law 
in the office of Judge Poland, and was a careful, 
faithful, industrious, and competent student. He 
entered the Albany Law School, and graduated from 
that institution with high honors. He then began 
the practice of law in Canton with the same enthu- 
siasm and devotion to duty which he had always 
manifested. As a practitioner at the bar he at once 
exhibited superior qualities, careful, studious, and 
faithful. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney of his 
county, and distinguished himself by his learning, 
fidelity, and efficiency in the discharge of his duties 
to the public and his clients. 

He was elected a member of the 45th Congress, 
and served in that Congress and the 46th, 47th, 
48th, 49th, and was certified as elected to the 50th, 
but was excluded by a Democratic majority in a con- 
test, but was returned to the 51st, making his con- 
gressional career nearly fourteen years. As a mem- 
ber of Congress he was attentive, industrious, and 
untiring, working his way gradually until he reached 
the post of leader of the Republican majority of the 
51st Congress. He did not attain this position by 
accident or by any fortuitous circumstance, but by 
constant attention to his duties and a careful study of 



30 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

the public measures of importance. He was a can- 
didate for Speaker of the House of Representatives 
of the 51st Congress. Mr. Reed, the successful can- 
didate, appointed him as Chairman of the Ways and 
Means Committee, and he entered upon the duties 
incident to that position with great energy and intel- 
ligence. There was a necessity and a well-defined 
public demand for tariff legislation in that Congress. 
The Republican party had come into power by the 
election of Mr. Harrison, with the understanding and 
pledge that tariff revision should be accomplished at 
once. The tariff laws of 1883 required amendment 
and improvement on account of the lapse of time and 
change of circumstances. In 1890 it was decided to 
present a complete revision of the tariff, and to this 
work McKinley devoted himself with untiring indus- 
try. He had upon that committee many competent 
assistants, but the chief burdens necessarily fell upon 
the chairman. Mr. Speaker Reed was in hearty 
sympathy and earnest co-operation, and the House 
of Representatives, on the 21st day of May, 1890, 
passed the bill known as the McKinley Tariff Bill. 
Any one turning to the great debate in the House of 
Representatives pending the passage of that measure 
in the Committee of the Whole will appreciate the 
great scope of McKinley's knowledge of the subject- 
matter of that enactment. 

It has never been claimed by McKinley's friends 
that he was the sole author of the McKinley bill. 
Not only did he have able supporters and assistants, 



Ix\TROi)Ul'T()KY CHAPTKR 31 

but he yielded to them under all circumstances oppor- 
tunities for demonstrating their leadership upon sub- 
jects connected with the bill, and over and over ugain 
expressed in public and in private his-- great admira- 
tion for the assistance contributed by his colleagues 
in the Committee. But it is fair to say that Mc- 
Kinley mastered the whole subject in Congress in 
detail. He has made the subject of protective tariff 
a life study. Born and reared within the sounds of 
the rolling mill, and beneath the smoke and flame 
of furnaces, and with the full knowledge of the calls 
of labor and the necessities of capital, he has grown 
up from childhood a student of the economic ques- 
tions involved in American legislation, and so he 
brought to this task in the 51st Congress remarkable 
knowledge of details and thorough equipment for the 
great work devolved upon him. McKinley is a^ man 
of conspicuous modesty. He never claimed the ex- 
clusive authorship of this measure, but it must be 
admitted that he contributed more than any one else 
to the policy of combining in a tariff law ample pro- 
vision for sufficient revenue to meet the expenditures 
of the Government, and at the same time to protect 
and foster impartially all domestic labor and produc- 
tion from undue competition with the poorly paid 
labor of foreign nations. 

It is often asserted that the McKinley Act failed 
in providing sufficient revenue to support the Gov- 
ernment. This is not true, as it did furnish revenue 
to meet expenditures, but it did not provide a surplus 



33 INTEODUCTORY CHAPTER 

equal to tke sinking fund for the reduction of the 
public debt. This was not the fault of McKinley 
or of the House of Kepresentatives, but of the 
Senate, which insisted upon reciprocity clauses 
which largely reduced the revenue provided by 
that Act. 

It was the misfortune of the McKinley Act that it 
took effect at the opening of a Presidential contest, 
and when "Labor Troubles" excited the public 
mind. The election of 1892 fell with demoralizing 
and almost crushing weight upon the Kepublican 
party of the country. The law of 1890 was every- 
where, by Republicans and Democrats, denominated 
the McKinley Law, and from ocean to ocean the 
common people learned to so denominate it. At that 
time Major McKinley not only did not seek to evade 
the responsibility of his jDOsition, but frankly and 
openly admitted it, and he counselled courage and 
fortitude, and gave assurance of his strong faith in 
the ultimate triumph of the E-epublican party upon 
the very principles which then seemed to be re- 
pudiated by the people. 

Addressing himself to an audience of discouraged 
Republicans in February, 1893, he said : 

"The Republican party values its principles no 
less in defeat than in victory. It holds to them 
after a reverse as before, because it believes in them, 
and, believing in them, is ready to battle for them. 
They are not espoused for mere policy, nor to serve 
in a single contest. They are set deep and strong 



TXTRODUCTOKY CllAl'TER 33 

in the hearts of the party, and are interwoven with 
its struggle, its life, and its history. Without dis- 
couragement our great party reaffirms its allegiance 
to Republican doctrine, and with unshaken confi- 
dence seeks again the public judgment through pub- 
lic discussion. The defeat of 1892 has not made 
Republican principles less true nor our faith in their 
ultimate triumph less firm. The party accepts with 
true American spirit the popular verdict, and chal- 
lenging the interpretation put upon it by political 
opponents, takes an appeal to the people, whose 
court is always open, whose right of review is never 
questioned. 

" The Republican party, which made its first appear- 
ance in a national contest in 1856, has lost the Presi- 
dency but three times in thirty-six years, and only 
twice since 1860. It has carried seven Presidential 
elections out of ten since its organization. It has 
more than once witnessed an apparent condemna- 
tion of Republican policy swiftly and conclusively 
reversed by a subsequent and better considered popu- 
lar verdict. When defeat has come it has usually 
followed some measure of public law or policy where 
sufficient time has not elapsed to demonstrate its 
wisdom and expediency, and where the opposing 
party, by reason thereof, enjoyed the widest range of 
popular prejudice and exaggerated statements and 
misrepresentation." 

This was the language of a bold leader of public 
opinion. There was no trimming, no hiding from 



H IN^TRODUCTOEY CHAPTER 

responsibility, no shirking from the grwit question 
of protection. 

After the passage of the Tariff Act of 1890 the 
country rang with the designation " McKiuley Law " 
as a term of reproach. The man who had given his 
name to that Act when it was denounced, boldly pro- 
claimed his responsibility for it. When the tide 
turned in its favor he heartily acknowledged the 
aid of his colleagues. 

My familiar association as a Senator from Ohio 
with McKinley during his service in the House of 
Representatives enables me to say that he won 
friends from all parties by uniform courtesy and 
fairness, unyielding in sustaining the position of his 
party upon every question on the floor of the House. 
His leadership was, nevertheless, not offensive or 
aggressive, and while he carried his points, he was 
always courteous to his opponents, impersonal in 
debate, and always ready to concede honest motives 
to his opponents. At the close of the 51st Congress, 
and when his services as a Congressman ended, 
he retired without leaving behind him a single 
enemy, and yet he had been unswerving in party 
fealty and uncompromising upon every question 
of principle. His name became linked with the 
great measure of that Congress by the common 
voice of the peoj^le of the whole country, and by the 
world at large. 

He, shortly after his service in Congress, entered 
upon the campaign for Governor of Ohio. He was 



INTKODUCTOKY CHAPTER 35 

nominated by acclamation in 1891. The State had 
been carried in 1890 by the Republicans by a very 
close majority, and the drift in the country was 
against the success of the Republican party. The 
discussion by Major McKinley in Ohio of the tariff 
and currency questions was one of the most thorough 
and instructive of all the debates in that State. It 
was a counterpart, in large measure, of that of 1875, 
when, after a series of defeats throughout the country, 
growing out of the use of irredeemable paper money, 
President Hayes, then a candidate for Governor of 
Ohio, boldly advocated the resumption of specie pay- 
ments, and was elected on that issue. It was a cam- 
paign where principles won against prejudices. So, 
in the campaign of 1891, Governor McKinley, dis- 
regarding threatened disasters, adhered without com- 
promise to the platform of principles involved in the 
tariff legislation of Congress. He neither apologized 
nor modified his position, and his election by upwards 
of twenty thousand majority in that year was the 
significant result. 

The office of Governor of Ohio was to McKinley a 
new field of action. It was the first executive office 
he had ever held. It was his first experience in 
administrative duty. His success in that department 
of the public service was as significant and con- 
spicuous as his experience in the legislative depart- 
ment of the general government had been. 

He was Governor during a period involving excite- 
ment and intense commotion in Ohio — the strikes 



36 INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTER 

among the coal-miners, the organizing of bands of 
tramps, and the passage across the State of great 
bodies of turbulent people. All these things tended 
to precipitate commotion and disorder. His admin- 
istration as a Governor was without reproach or just 
criticism. He was faitliful to every duty, firm, 
unyielding, and defiant in the administration of the 
law. When necessary he called out the troop>s and 
crushed disorder with an iron hand, but before doing 
so he resorted to every proper expedient to maintain 
order and the law. He was diplomatic, careful, per- 
suasive, and generally restored order and good 
government. 

The great depression of 1894-5 brought a condition 
of suffering to many of the leading industries of the 
State. Charity was appealed to by the Governor 
and aid rendered promptly and efficiently. In 
January, 1896, he retired from the office of Governor 
at the end of his second term with the hearty good- 
will of all the people of the State. He had yielded 
to no unworthy influence, made duty, honor, integ- 
rity, and fidelity the criterion of his administration, 
and he took his place in the ranks of the private 
citizens of the State in the town from which he had 
first entered Congress. 

It has been said that Governor McKinley's knowl- 
edge is limited to a single subject, and that his 
speeches have been confined to the tariff question. 
This is a great mistake. His studies and speeches 
embraced a great variety of subjects and extend«d to 



- INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 3? 

nearly every measure of importance discussed while 
he was in Congress, and his addresses to the people, 
a long list of which has been published, cover every 
variety of subjects appropriate to the time and place 
when they were delivered. 

On the vital question of the currency he has held 
the position of the Republican party. When under 
the stress of war the United States was compelled to 
use irredeemable money, he acquiesced in conditions 
he could not change, but every step taken to advance 
the credit and value of United States notes while 
he has been in public life he has supported. He 
supported the Act for the resumption of specie pay- 
ments and the successful accomplishment of that 
measure. I know of no act or vote or speech of his 
inconsistent with this position. He advocates the 
use of both gold and silver coins as money to the 
extent and upon the condition that they can be 
maintained at par with each other. This can only 
be done by purchasing as needed the cheaper metal 
at market value and coining it at the legal rate of 16 
of silver to 1 of gold, and receiving it in payment of 
public dues. Gold is now the standard of value. 
With free coinage of silver that metal will be the 
standard of value and gold will be demonetized. 
Governor McKinley is opposed to the free coinage of 
silver, and has so repeatedly declared in his speeches. 
McKinley is in favor of honest money. 

In his last Gubernatorial canvass in Ohio Gover- 
nor McKinley made this response to the declaration 



38 TXTRODLTCTORY CHAPTER 

of his opponent, ex-Governor CamiDbell, that he was 
wlllino; to "chance it" on silver: 

" My worthy opponent should not ' chance ' any- 
thing with a question of such vital and absorbing in- 
terest as the money of the people. The money of 
America must be equal to the best money of the 
world. Unlike my opponent, I will not ask you to 
take any chances on this question ; I will clearly and 
unequivocally say to you that my choice and influ- 
ence are in favor of the best money that the ingenuity 
of man has devised. The people are not prepared to 
indulge in the speculation of free and unlimited 
coinage. 

" The Kepublican party stands now, as ever, for 
honest money, and a chance to earn it by honest toil. 
It stands for a currency of gold, silver, and j^aper 
that shall be as sound as the government and as un- 
tarnished as its honor. I would as soon think of 
lowering the flag of our country as to contemplate 
with patience, or without protest, any attempt to de- 
grade or corrupt the medium of exchanges among 
our people. The Republican party can be relied 
upon in the future, as in the past, to supply our 
country with the best money ever known — gold, silver, 
and paper — good the world over." 

It has been said that the recent Ohio platfoi'm does 
not declare against free coinage of silver and for 
honest money. Tliis is not a fair construction of 
that declaration. The people of Ohio are for that 
money which has the highest purchasing power, that 




I 



IXTRODUCTUKY CHAP'J'fiR 43 

which yields to labor the highest wages to be paid in 
the best money, and to domestic productions tiie 
higliest price in the best money, and that is gold coin 
or its equivalent in other money of equal purchasing 
power. This, I believe, is also the opinion of Gov- 
ernor McKinley, and is the doctrine of the Repub- 
lican party. 

In his domestic life Governor McKinley is a model 
American citizen. It is not the purpose of the writer 
of this sketch to use fulsome language or to comment 
upon his private life, beyond the mere statement that 
he is, and has been, an affectionate son of honored 
parents, his mother still living, a devoted husband, 
and a true friend. In his family and social life, 
and in his personal habits, he commends himself to 
the friends of order, temperance, and good morals. 
In private he is exemplary, in public life a patriotic 
Republican. It may be said of him Avith great pro- 
priety that no man can more fully represent in his 
own career than he the great issues upon which the 
Republican party contested the election of 1896. 



^!^^2C*--'^-'v— 



i 



CHAPTER II. 

ANCE8TKY YOUTH IN THE AEMY STUDENT OF 

LAW PROSECUTING ATTORNEY HOME LIFE. 

THE life of William McKinley is that of an 
American boy who made the best of his 
opportunities, continually striving for bet- 
ter, with no vain longings, but a continuous will- 
ingness to work that he might learn. It is such a 
story as should be included in every school-book, 
not only as a lesson and an inspiration to the young, 
but as a reminder of the possibilities of American 
citizenship to those called upon to help children in 
their studies. He was born at Niles, Ohio, January 
29th, 1843, and is now in his fifty-fourth year ; his hair 
is but lightly sprinkled with gray, and he is robust 
and alert. McKinley was descended from a long 
line of citizens who in times of peace were foremost 
in industry, and in the days of war always at the 
front. On his father's side his people were High- 

42 



MeKINLEY'S EAKLY DAYS 43 

laud Scotch, brawny and brainy men, who needed 
only the o2:>portunities and enlightenment of educa- 
tion. They were not of the royalist tribes of Scot- 
land, but a sturdy set, with a determined though 
imperfectly developed idea of freedom. Liberty of 
conscience was real with them, and they left the 
Highlands for the north of Ireland, seeking indepen- 
dence, and thence to America for the greater liberty 
they found and helped to perpetuate. 

James McKinley, a fine Scotch-Irish lad of twelve 
years, was the first to come to America. He was the 
father of David McKinley, the great-grandfather 
of the Republican candidate for the Presidency. 
William McKinley came to America with James, 
and settled in the South, where his descendants have 
been and are men of distinction. David McKinley 
was a revolutionary soldier, one of the sort not re- 
membered in history, except under the grand classi- 
fication of privates. 

On his grandmother's side McKinley comes of 
equally good and sturdy stock, Mary Rose, who mar- 
ried James McKinley, the second, having come from 
Holland, where her ancestors had fled to escape 
religious tyranny in England. The first of the Rose 
family to emigrate to America was Andrew, who 
came with William Penn and was one of the repre- 
sentatives of the thirteen colonies before the rebellion 
against Great Britain. He owned the land on which 
Doylestown stands to-day. It was his son, Andrew 
Rose, who was the father of Mary Rose, the mother 



I 



44 McKINLEY'S EARLY DAYS 

of William McKinley, Sr. This Andrew Rose did 
more than double duty in the war for freedom against 
Great Britain. He fought and made weapons to 
fight with. 

Tliis is an ancestry typically American, one of 
soldiers and workers for the country's welfare and 
wealth, and McKinley's good fortune cast his lot in 
a happy home, where the true mother imbued the 
children with love of God and the country. 

In the small town of Niles, in the county of 
Trumbull, Ohio's great son, whom the E,e2:)ublicans 
have just nominated for the Presidency, was born in 
an unpretentious frame building, a house that was 
partly dwelling and partly country store, the dwell* 
ing very neat and bright — a good home. There was 
no silver spoon in William McKinley's mouth, 
though his j^arents were comfortably situated. The 
Major was the seventh child, and after him there 
were born a girl and a boy. 

If William McKinley is not a member of the 
"Sons of the American Revolution," he has a perfect 
right to become one, for he has Revolutionary ances- 
tors on both sides. His great-grandfather, David 
McKinley, a Pennsylvanian, served in the Revolu- 
tionary War, enlisting at twenty-one, serving for one 
year and nine months. His great-grandfather on his 
grandmother's side was not only a soldier but he was 
a good mechanic, and molded bullets and madt 
cannon balls" for the men who were fighting for free- 
dom. He was enlisted in the Revolution, and added 



McKIN LEY'S EAKLV DAYS 45 

to his services the mechanical genius which lie 
possessed. Thi? union of the excellent qualities of a 
soldier aud rzKichanic was of excellent service to the 
cause. 

David McKinley's second son, James, married 
Mary ]P*ose, daughter of Andrew Rose, Jr., the 
revolutionary soldier and founder. James McKin- 
ley raised a large family. Indeed, that seems to 
have been characteristic of the stock. His second 
3on, William, born in Pennsylvania, was the father 
of the present Republican candidate for President. 
William McKinley, Sr., married Nancy Campbell 
Allison. The Allisons were good stock. They 
came from England to Virginia and multiplied, the 
branch from which Mrs. William McKinley, Sr., 
sprung emigrating to Pennsylvania. Major Mc- 
Kinley's grandfather, Abner Allison, married Ann 
Campbell, in Green County, Pennsylvania, in 1798. 
Ann Campbell was of Scotch-German origin. The 
family moved to iSTew Lisbon, Ohio, where their ten 
children were born. It was at New Lisbon, in 
1827, that William McKinley, Sr., married Nancy 
Campbell Allison. It may be interesting to state 
that, could the lines be fully followed out, it would 
be found that Major McKinley is a third or fourth 
cousin, possibly fifth or sixth, of William B. Allison, 
of Iowa, who was a candidate for the Presidency at 
St. Louis. The Allisons spread through the western 
country, some of them settling in the vicinity of 
Chillicothe. It was probably from the Pennsylvania 



46 McKINLEY'S EARLY DAYS 

branch that William B. Allison sprung, for he was 
born in Ohio, in a portion of the State not far from 
New Lisbon. 

It is noticeable that the McKinleys and the fami- 
lies into which they married were all industrious, 
hard-working j:>eople, religiously inclined, patriots 
and pioneers — a hardy race that baffled with diffi- 
culty and helped in carving a civilization out of a 
wilderness. The McKinley-Eose-Allison families 
were all Pennsylvanians originally, and a people 
with a trend toward the iron business. The Koses 
were iron founders, so was McKinley's father, while 
his mother's people were farmers. The combination 
of tillers of the soil and molders of the ore was a 
good one, and added much to the strength of charac- 
ter and the industrious application that is so charac- 
teristic of Major McKinley. 

Mr. and Mrs. William McKinley, Sr., settled first 
at Fairfield, Ohio, another small town. There, in 
Columbiana County, which is now a part of the 
Eighteenth Ohio District, which his son represented 
for fourteen years in Congress, the father established 
an iron foundry, and for two decades he had interests 
in iron furnaces in Ncav Wilmington, Ohio. It is 
interesting to observe that McKinley's ancestry 
makes it possible to trace his character. The lines 
of activity pursued by his forefathers were such as 
to leave their impress upon their offspring, and 
much as Major McKinley owes to his own energy 
and labor, the tendency to study, to activity, and to 



McKINLEY'S EARLY DAYS 47 

continued effort was inherited. He had opportu- 
nities for application, and to his credit be it said 
he did not neglect them. He had openings and 
chances broader and bettei- than his ancestors, and 
took advantage of them. It is seen from this short 
reference to his ancestry that Major McKinley was 
one of the people born in plain, respectable, and 
religious surroundings. He did not have the advan- 
tages nor the embarrassments of a great name, but pro- 
ceeded by his own effort, by his own continuity of 
purpose, by study and energy, to make his name great. 
William McKinley had a good mother. That she 
is now living, strong and well, with as active an 
intellect as ever at eighty-seven, is one of his great 
joys. Vigorous and energetic and strong as his 
father was, William McKinley, Jr., had the benefit 
of a mother's training, of her love and devotion, of 
her gentle guidance, of her religious instruction. 
Mrs. McKinley, as most mothers of large families, 
was enabled to do more for her children because 
they were numerous than had she but one or 
two. The danger of being spoiled was obviated, and 
the association with brothers and sisters naturally 
produced a thoughtfulness for others, a regard for 
different opinions, and at the same time helped 
develop an ability to care for himself, since in a 
family of many members, no matter how harmonious 
and loving it be, there is always a struggle for 
supremacy, particularly when there is an inheritance 
of aggressiveness. 



48 McIUNLBY'S EARLY DAYS 

William McKinley's mother is a Christian woman. 
Bhe loved her country ways, and trained her son to 
patriotic views, and willingly ottered him for sacrifice 
when she consented to his entering the army to help 
put down the rebellion when he was not yet eighteen 
years old. She has pride in his abilities and world- 
wide reputation, and is undoubtedly rejoiced that he 
has been named for the greatest and most exalted 
ofiice in the world. But such a mother as McKinley 
has would count this honor as nothing, would be 
unhappy, if it had been secured unworthily. Truly 
Mrs. McKinley's greatest happiness lies in the fact 
that her son is an honorable man and respected even 
by his enemies, because his life has been free from 
stain. That good old mother lives in Canton now, 
happy in her son's preferment, and sad only because 
her good husband was taken away three years ago, 
before he could see his son the Presidential candidate 
of his party. 

The family moved to Poland from Niles when 
William McKinley was still young. The mother 
desired her children to have educational advantages, 
and there was in Poland, Ohio, an academy which in 
those days had a wide reputation for the abilities of 
its teachers. There Major McKinley's sister, Annie, 
became a teacher and William a scholar. The young 
boy made friends always by his quiet dignity and 
serious habits — a student always, but withal a manly 
fellow, who could play as hard as he studied. The 
McKinley family was held in high esteem in Po- 



McKINLEY'S EARLY DAYS 40 

land, and to this day it is remembered with affection 
and pleasure. The testimony of old friends, the 
stories of childhood, are always true indications of 
the character of a young man, and of McKinley there 
is nothing in criticism said. Everybody liked him 
as a boy, and, of course, bright and thorough in his 
work as he was, there were j^rophecies that he would 
make a great man. That often happens with like- 
able children, but, alas I it too seldom is verified by 
the future. 

The town of Poland was an agricultural and min- 
ing village, only eight miles from Youngstown, and 
consequently near the Pennsylvania State line, a city 
in the now prosperous and fertile Mahoning Valley, 
which is as famous in Ohio as the Connecticut Val- 
ley is in New England. Poland never grew much. 
It was too near Youngstown, but the citizens of the 
town are proud that small as it is, the draft was 
never enforced there, for the men volunteered from 
patriotic motives. . In fact there were always more 
volunteers than Poland's quota justified. 

A boy, while studying in the public schools, the 
educational advantages he gained made him one of 
their best friends and advocates. To him the 
magnificent school system of Ohio is a matter of 
pride In the days of McKinley's youth men and 
boys often did chores to help the family along, and 
that was what McKinley himself did. McKinley 
was a clerk in the Poland post-office when he entered 
the war. He was studying and marking at tne same 



50 McKII^LEY'S EAELY DAYS 

time. One had a feeling of pride in the advance- 
ment of a young man who struggled for his educa- 
tion. So many have been educated without having 
to work to jDay for it, and have not properly regarded 
the educational advantages, that there is a tingle of 
satisfaction in seeing a man succeed who earned his 
education literally by the sweat of his brow. 

In June, 1861, two months after the surrender of 
Fort Sumter, when McKinley was a youth not yet 
eighteen, there was a meeting at the tavern in 
Poland. In a small town the hotel is a meeting 
place, just as a store is in a village. Here the citizens 
had assembled, thirty-five years ago, to discuss the 
secession of States. A speaker in a fiery talk asked 
who would be first to defend the flag. The boys of 
Poland came forward, one by one, and among them 
was our next President, a slight, pale-faced young- 
man, of studious mien. Two years before he had 
joined the Methodist church, and was a member of 
the Bible-class, who was constantly seeking informa- 
tion. Before the war, at seventeen, he had gone to 
Allegheny College, but an illness called him home. 
He did not return, but took to teaching school — a 
youth instructing scholars at a country school, some 
of them as old as he. 

McKinley at that meeting enlisted in Company E 
of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteers, a regiment 
that produced such men as Stanley Matthews, after- 
^''ard Senator and Associate Justice of the Supreme 
Court ; President Hayes, and of which W. S. Rose- 



McKITv^LEY'S EARLY DAYS 51 

crans was first coloDel. He served fourteen months 
as a private. Speaking of McKinley's connection 
with the regiment, General Hayes said : " At once it 
was found that he had unusual character for the 
mere business of war. There is a quartermaster's 
department, which is a very necessary and important 
department in every regiment, in every brigade, in 
every division, in every army. Young as he was, we 
soon found that in business, in executive ability, 
young McKinley was a man of rare capacity, of un- 
usual and unsurpassed capacity, especially for a boy 
of his age. When battles were fought or service was 
to be performed in warlike things, he always took 
his place. The night was never too dark; the 
weather was never too cold ; there was no sleet or 
storm, or hail or snow, or rain that was in the way 
of his prompt and efficient performance of every 
duty." 

That is a great tribute from a great man. Mc- 
Kinley soon went on General Hayes's staff, when the 
then major became commander of the regiment, and 
he served in that capacity for two years, and served 
so well that Hayes knew " him like a book and loved 
him like a brother." That friendship continued, 
and the writer remembers at the funeral of the ex- 
President, in 1892, Governor McKinley, who was 
there with his staff, cried like a child when he looked 
at the body of his old commander and personal 
friend. 

At the battle of Antietam on September 17th, 1862, 



52 MoKINLEY'S EARLY DAYS 

probably the bloodiest day of the war, McKinley was 
commissary sergeant in the Twenty-third Ohio. 
General Hayes says of his services then : " That 
battle began at daylight. Before daylight men were 
in the ranks and preparing for it. Without break- 
fast, without coftee, they went into the fight, and it 
continued until after the sun had set. Early in the 
afternoon, naturally enough, with the exertion re- 
quired of the men, they were famished and thirsty, 
and to some extent broken in s|)irit. The commissary 
department of that brigade was under Sergeant 
McKinley 's administration and personal supervision. 
From his hands every man in the regiment was 
served with hot coffee and warm meats — a thing that 
had never occurred under similar circumstances in 
any other army in the world. He passed under fire 
and delivered with his own hands these things so 
essential to the men for whom he was laboring. 
Coming to Ohio and recovering from wounds, I 
called upon Governor Todd and told him this inci- 
dent. With the emphasis that distinguished that 
great war governor, he said : * Let McKinley be 
promoted from sergeant to lieutenant.' And that I 
might not forget, he requested me to put it upon the 
roster of the regiment, which I did, and McKinley 
was promoted." 

Speaking of his war service, Major McKinley said, 
just before he retired from the governorship of 
Ohio: "I always look back with pleasure upon 
those fourteen months in which I served in the 



McKINLEYS EAKLY DAYS 5*3 

ranks. They taught me a great deal. I was but 
a school-boy when I went into the army, and that 
first year was a formative period in ni}'- life, during 
which I learned much of men and of affairs. I 
have always been glad that I entered the service as 
a private and served those months in that capacity." 

At the battle of Kernstown McKinley was on 
General Hayes's staff. Crook's corps had been ex- 
pecting an easy time when it appeared that the 
enemy was in force at Kernstown, about four miles 
from Winchester, where Crook's troops were. There 
had been some misinformation regarding the Con- 
federate general Early's movements, and the force 
about to be met was that of Early, which outnum- 
bered Crook's corps three to one. When the battle 
began one of the regiments was not in position, and 
Lieutenant McKinley was ordered to bring it in. 
The road to the regiment needed was through open 
fields and right in the enemy's line of fire. Shells 
were bursting on his right and left, but the, boy sol- 
dier rode on. He reached the regiment, gave the 
orders to them, and at his suggestion the regiment 
fired on the enemy and slowly withdrew to take the 
position where they were assigned. It was a gallant 
act of the boy soldier, and General Hayes had not 
expected him to come back alive. 

At the battle of Opequan he was on General Hayes's 
Btaff still. There he distinguished himself for gallan- 
try, for good judgment, and military skill. He had 
been ordered to bring General Duval's troops to join 



oi McKINLEY'S EAELY DAYS. 

tlie first division, which was getting into battle. There 
was a question as to the route to take. The young 
officer knew it intuitively, and, acting on his own 
responsibility, directed Duval the way to go, and 
brought the troops up in good style, taking great 
chances in doing so, but succeeding nevertheless. 
Other equally courageous and dangerous things the 
Ohio officer undertook. He served with General 
Crook as a staff officer later on, and was finally as- 
signed to duty with General Hancock. He entered 
the war a private, one of the several hundred thou- 
sand, a boy of seventeen, and left it a major in the 
United States Volunteers by brevet, and he earned 
every promotion by his own skill. Think of it, a 
major at twenty-one ! Major McKinley still has his 
brevet commission. It was given him in 1864, and 
reads : " For gallant and meritorious services at the 
battle of Opequan, Cedar Creek, and Fisher's Hill." 
Who signed that ? " A. Lincoln." It is a testimo- 
nial of bravery, of patriotism, and of manliness, and 
Major McKinley is proud of it. WJio blames him ? 
There are other records more brilliant ; others, but 
none displayed more courage, and few had equal re- 
sponsibilities at his age. His horse was shot from 
under him at Berryville. He can appreciate the 
hardships of the private soldier's life, for he endured 
them himself. He knows the worries of the officer, 
for these also he experienced. He understands the 
duties of a staff officer, for he was one. There is 
everything in his record that is creditable, and noth- 



McKlNLEVS EAHJ.Y DAYS 55 

iiig that is discreditable. He was a typical American 
citizen soldier. 

After the surrender at Appomattox, and after he 
was mustered out, Major McKinley was offered a 
commission in the regular army. It was a tempta- 
tion hard to resist, for four years in the army, at the 
formative period of his life, gave him a love for 
military service that was hard to overcome. What 
might have been his career had he remained in the 
army no one can tell. There is little chance for 
advancement there, but he would probably have ulti- 
mately commanded a regiment, and with the prejudice 
against officers appointed from civilian life he might 
never have risen higher and perhaps might not have 
attained that rank. 

Acting on the advice of his father, he entered 
civil life. He studied law in Mahoning County, 
under Judge Glidden, who was one of the noted men 
at the Stark County bar. Under him McKinley 
studied for a year and a half, and his family made 
sacrifices to enable him to do so. Their unselfish- 
ness enabled him to go to the Albany Law School, 
which has developed many men of brain and ability. 
In 1867, twenty-nine years ago, he was admitted 
to the bar and chose Canton, then a small town of 
about 6,000 people, for his home. Canton was not 
important then, though the county of Stark was 
destined to develop and prosper under the policy of 
protection which he advocated. Great manufactories 
were to develop there, and the Mahoning Valley was 



56 McKINLEY'S EARLY DAYS 

to be smoke laden by the industry and the sky abovt 
it to be lightened by the blazing chimneys of fur* 
naces. 

Major McKinley had been a good debater at 
school. He was often the winner in such contests. 
After he got back from the war he entered a polit- 
ical debate, and was overcome by his opponent. Nat- 
urally a sensitive man, he was chagrined, and re- 
solved that never again would there be the oppor- 
tunity given for a similar defeat. The subject of the 
debate was protection, and McKinley knew his view 
was right. Though worsted in the argument, he 
had no question as to the logic of his reasoning ; but 
he needed more facts, greater study to support them, 
and he immediately applied himself to acquiring 
them. 

Though a newcomer, he had gained a reputation 
for legal ability in Stark County, which was Demo- 
cratic. It appeared as if it would be a herculean 
task to carry it. McKinley had a natural aptitude 
for politics, and his life as an attorney tended to 
increase it. The Republicans wanted a candidate 
for Prosecuting Attorney. Some say McKinley was 
chosen simply because of his ability, and others that 
while his capacity was recognized, the Republicans 
did not think the place worth fighting for when de- 
feat seemed certain, and gave it to McKinley, a new 
man, as a mark of recognition. Now Major Mc- 
Kinley never in his life entered a fight to lose it. 
He never confessed himself beaten. The stern de- 




MRS. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 



MeKINLEVS EAKLV DAYS . 5!) 

termination of his ancestors came to him in good 
atead, and he went into the campaign to win. He 
was elected Prosecuting Attorney, much to the sur- 
prise of the Democrats. There he displayed his 
customary ability, and was renominated, only to be 
defeated, but the opponent who overcame him won 
by forty-five votes only. 

The campaigns for Prosecuting Attorney marked 
the beginning of McKinley's political career. 
While practicing law he took an active part in poli- 
tics, but did not run for office until 1876. He 
stumped the district and often now speaks with 
pleasure of his experiences as a young stump 
speaker. The writer has driven through much of 
Stark County and Columbiana and Mahoning Coun- 
ties, which form part of the eighteenth district, and 
remembers the pride and pleasure which the Major 
would derive from discussing the old speech- 
making days, and tell us that he had spoken here 
and there, and give some incident of that life. Old 
inhabitants of the district tell of the great demand 
there was for the young speaker, of his eloquence 
and control of the subject he handled. They say he 
spoke as well as a young man as he does now, but 
that cannot be, for practice has perfected his delivery 
and enabled him to develop into a great orator. 

After his first term as Prosecuting Attorney, dur- 
ing the five years that passed before he ran for Con- 
gress, Major McKinley secured a large law practice. 
He prepftr«d every case thoroughly, knew every de- 



60 MeKINLEY\S EARLY DAYS 

tail, sifted the evidence, examined witnesses to the 
most minute detail ; in fact, when he went into a 
trial, he knew all there was to be known of the case 
he had in hand. It was characteristic of him to 
study his subject. No one ever found him unpre- 
pared. He was persuasive as an advocate, for he 
was eloquent. This natural ability, combined with 
his thorough understanding of the matter in hand, 
gave him many victories and made his reputation as 
a lawyer. The experiences at the bar in Stark 
County were further preparations for his leadership 
of the House. It was educational for him. 

In 1871 he was married to Miss Ida Saxton, whose 
father was a man of considerable literary ability, 
and the editor of the Canton Repository, which to 
this day is an able paper. He was a banker as well. 
She was thoroughly educated, given a trip abroad, 
which in the days following the war was an unusual 
advantage for a young woman, particularly when she 
came from a State six hundred miles from the sea. 
After that trip she entered her father's banking 
house as cashier. She left that to marry William 
McKinley, Jr. Her flither did not like the idea of 
her marrying, but he said that Major McKinley was 
the only man he was willing that she should marry. 
Two girls blessed this union. One died when still a 
baby, and the other after it had reached four years 
and had become the joy of the house. Mrs. McKin- 
ley had been worn by the death of her father, and 
this additional affliction aided in breaking her health. 



McKINLEY'S EARhY DAYS 61 

She had been a strong young woman, but the cares 
of motherhood had brought on an ilhiess from which 
she has never recovered. However, she is stronger 
since the Major left Congress, and though unable to 
attend to any great amount of social duties, has many 
friends, and all who know her admire her for her 
patience and good spirits, her gentleness and devo- 
tion, and admiration for her husband. 

She likes to see her friends and loves children, 
who know they are always welcome at her house. 
Mrs. McKinley is an adept with the needle, and she 
knits well, too. Many clothes and warm mitts and 
jackets she has made for friends and for the poor. 
They are prized greatly by all who get them. Mrs. 
McKinley travels a deal to be with her husband, and 
has often heard him speak, as on four or five occa- 
sions during the gubernatorial campaign of 1893. 
In that prolonged contest, when the Governor spoke 
more than three hundred times in eighty out of the 
eiglity-eight counties of the State, he was never too 
weary after the last meeting on Saturday to take a 
train for Columbus, or Cincinnati, or Cleveland, or 
Chicago, where Mrs. McKinley happened to be, that 
he might spend Sunday with her. It was a beauti- 
ful devotion, and not at all surprising when the 
Major's tender care and solicitude for his wife is re- 
membered. 

Though an invalid, Mrs. McKinley has been cheer- 
ful and in trying times brave, never faltering in her 
belief in her husband and ever ready to cheer him. 



63 McKINLEY'S EAELY DAYS 

Ill-health is trying and a test of disposition, but 
Mrs. McKinley has never complained, and has always 
been resigned. The death of her children, Kate and 
Ida (the latter was born on Christmas, 1871), was 
a cruel blow, but both the Major and his wife have 
borne their sorrow patiently and with Christian 
spirit. They have sought the happiness that their 
children would have given in closer union and in 
the enjoyment of the little ones of others. 



CHAPTER in. 

McKinley in Congress — The rapid growth of his National Reputar 
tion — Became the Champion of Protection — First in a National 
Convention. 

In the five years that followed his retirement from 
the prosecuting attorneyship of Stark County, Ohio, 
Major McKinley had grown in popularity and in 
the estimation of his neighbors. In the centennial 
year he was brought forward as a candidate for the 
Republican congressional nomination. L. D. Woods- 
worth, of Mahoning, was the representative, and 
there were other candidates, including three from 
Stark County. That county then elected its dele- 
gates to the congressional convention by primaries 
m every township. To the surprise of his opponents 
William McKinley, who knew, and was known, in 
every hamlet and town and village and community 
in the county, carried all the townships but one, and 
that was so small that it had but one delegate. The 
Major had been through all the other counties of 
the old eighteenth district, and in one of them he 
was born. It was not a difficult matter to secure a 
majority in these counties, and as a result he was 
nominated with a cheer on the first ballot. 

It is not surprising that the old political war-horse« 

63 



64 MeKINLEY IN CONGRESS 

of the district were amazed at this rise of a young 
man, only thirty-three. McKinley had triumphed, 
and never afterward was it possible to contest his 
right to represent that district. He dominated it. 
The Republican party was proud of him, and though 
it was not customary in tliat district, and in fact it is 
not the habit in any Ohio district, except the one 
which General Garfield and E. B. Taylor represented 
for so many years, to name a man for more than two 
terms. It is this habit that makes Ohio less of a 
power in the national house than she would otlier- 
wise be. A Congressman, as soon as he has learned 
the ways of Congress and has been there long- 
enough to do good work for his district, is super- 
seded by some ambitious man, unprepared to do as 
well as his predecessor ; but the anxiety to become a 
statesman is so general in Ohio, and there is so much 
good timber there, that it is not surprising that this 
should be the case. 

Major McKinley represented the eighteenth dis- 
trict for fifteen years. The Democrats gerryman- 
dered him three times. He had been in the House 
but two years, one term, when his county was placed 
in a district that had a Democratic majority of 1,800. 
Major McKinley stumped the district from one end 
to the other, and carried it by 1,300 plurality — 
truly a great victory. In 1880 he was again elected. 
Thus by the time he was thirty-nine he had repre- 
sented his district in Congress three times. In 1882 
the district was again gerrymandered. He had a 



MeKINLEY IN CONGRESS 65 

majority on the face of the returns of eight votes. 
His opponent was named Wallace. Toward the end 
of the session of that Congress he was unseated by 
a Democratic House and Wallace given his place. 
That year, 1882, was not a very bright one for the 
Republicans. It will be recalled that then it was 
that Secretary Folger was defeated for Governor of 
New York by Grover Cleveland, of Buffalo, by a 
majority of 192,000 votes. This was the beginning 
of the rise of the man whom McKinley will succeed 
in the Presidential chair. How remarkable it seems, 
looking backward, that the ex-sheriff of Buffalo 
and the ex-mayor of the city of Buffalo should 
have been chosen Governor over such a tried and 
true Republican as Folger. However, Mr. Cleve- 
land is now even more unpopular than the Repub- 
lican party was when he was elected Governor. 
Secretary Folger told McKinley in 1882 that he had 
won a great victory to be returned to Congress at 
that time. 

Unseated toward the end of the Forty-eighth Con- 
gress, McKinley was re-elected to the Forty-ninth, in 
1884, by a great majority, and remained in Congress, 
being a member of the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and 
Fifty-first congresses, being defeated by a wicked 
gerrymander for the Fifty-second. Slowly but 
surely he has grown in influence. He had been 
modest in his first years of congressional life. A 
young man, full of enthusiasm and study and in- 
heriting an interest in the industries of the country, 



66 McKINLEY IN CONGKESS 

a natural researcher, he was from the beginning a 
protectionist. The district he represented was a 
manufacturing one. He studied its needs, saw where 
protection was a benefit, and proposed to stand by 
that cause. That he has done so is known to every- 
body. He has been nominated for the Presidency 
because he is a protectionist. He had the insight to 
see what policy was most important to his country, 
and, convinced that his view was the proper one, he 
prepared himself to support it. That he has done 
so ably even his enemies admit. He knows the in- 
dustries of the country thoroughly, is informed of 
business conditions in every section — a student of 
economics, a patient digger for information, a per- 
sistent questioner regarding conditions everywhere. 
This is apparent from his wonderful tariff speeches. 
The tariff is a dull subject at best, but McKinley 
makes the figures and statistics which encumber it, 
and ordinarily weary, interesting. His hearers feel 
that they are a part of himself and accordingly are 
attracted. There is almost a poetic tinge in his elo- 
quent tariff speeches. They are, many of them, as 
good English as is written. Then their facts are un- 
assailable. 

It was in his second term in Congress that William 
McKinley made a reputation as a tariff debater. 
He had probably addressed the House on other sub- 
iects. but then he had its attention, and it was 
appreciated by Judge Kelley, the leader on the 
Republican side, tnat a new force had entered Con- 



McKLXLEV IX CONGKESS - GT 

gress, an able exponent of protection was on the 
floor. He was not a member of the Ways and 
Means Committee then, for General Garfield repre- 
sented Ohio on that committee at that time. Few 
remember the Wood tariff bill of 1878— a bill in- 
tended to scale down revenue. McKinley saw that 
it was a blow to the protective system, that it was a 
step toward free trade, which he has been fighting 
ever since. He secured recognition in April of 1878, 
and addressed the House at length. His speech is 
very interesting reading now, and surprises even 
those who are informed of his ability, know his 
power and grasp of every subject, that he should 
then, so young and comparatively inexperienced in 
congressional work, have delivered such an admir- 
able plea for protection, such an appeal to the House 
not to strike down the industries of his district — of 
the country. Every argument he made then is good 
now against free trade. It was really a wonderful 
speech, and it made the young congressman from 
the old eighteenth district a figure in the House. 
Ever after that when he spoke he received attention. 
His voice was capable of filling the hall, whose 
acoustic properties are so poor. He painted the 
theory of free trade as a dream, a menace, and was 
roundly applauded when he had finished. That 
speech made him a reputation that was national. Tt 
marked him as the successor of James A. Garfiekl 
on the Ways and Means Committee, for Garfiekl 
was then a candidate for the Senate, to which, it 



(i8 McKINLEY IN CONGEESS 

will be remembered, he was elected before the Con- 
vention of 1880 made him a Presidential candidate. 

McKinley's Washington life was not a very social 
one. A man of his industry and studious habits 
had little time for the frivolities of society. Then 
his wife's health would not permit him to enter 
therein. He enjoyed the friendship of President 
Hayes, who had been his war commander. Mrs. 
Hayes took an interest in his invalid wife and they 
were most intimate. Such a woman as Mrs. Hayes, 
a motherly, lovable, conscientious Christian woman, 
could not but have been interested in the little Ohio 
woman, whose husband promised to become such a 
man of force, and the friendship there made never 
ended until death claimed the beloved " Lucy " 
Hayes. But the McKinleys had friends. They were 
not social leaders probably, though then a congress- 
man . was, if he chose, a factor in Washington 
society. The wish of the plutocrats had not out- 
stripped the congressional circle, and wealth was not 
one of the requirements for a successful Washington 
career, socially. Every one who had the pleasure 
of knowing the McKinleys appreciated their refine- 
ment and attractiveness. They were sought out by 
many, but preferred a life of comparative seclusion, 
brightened by the intimate friends who clung around 
them. 

When General Garfield retired from Congress, to 
assume the ill-fated Presidency, Major McKinley 
was his successor on the Ways and Means Committee. 



MeKINLEY IN CONGRESS 06 

Older members of that brainy set of men were glad 
to have him one of them, and Judge Kelley, the 
leading Republican, the great exponent of pro- 
tection, who earned for himself the title of "pig- 
iron " Kelley, welcomed the Ohio man. It was 
recognized that McKinley had a thorough and com- 
plete understanding of the subject under discussion 
and the tariff men were rejoiced to have their forces 
so strengthened. 

There can be no doubt that Major McKinley ad- 
vocated protection because he was convinced it was 
necessary for the prosperity of the country. It was 
to him a public duty to support it. He had mas- 
tered all its details, knew the theory, and was always 
able to show that the free-trade ideas meant destruc- 
tion if put in force. The experience of the country 
under the present tariff reform measure, which Mr. 
Cleveland himself said was tinged with j^arty perfidy 
and party dishonor, show conclusively that he was 
right. The people believe he is, and for that reason 
they demanded his nomination. Nothing could stop 
it. The wave of popular approval would not be 
hindered. It swept on and overwhelmed all oppo- 
sition. 

In 1882, as a member of the Ways and Means 
Committee, he urged that the Tariff Commission be 
appointed, and made an able speech in its support. 
The results of that Commission are known. McKin- 
ley was one of those who helped frame the tariff bill 
of 1883, which was in force for seven years, and was 



70 McKlNLEY IN CONGRESS 

an admirable act. It was partially his work, and in 
the debates on that measure he attained additional 
reputation. He opposed reduced taxation, and 
showed clearly that the farmers did not want it. 
Who now will tell a farmer that a tariff hurts him ? 
Who will urge any agriculturist to support tariff 
reform when he has seen the injuries to agriculture, 
the reduction in the price of farm commodities such 
as potatoes, by reason of lessened duties thereon? 
McKinley knew what was best for the farmers then, 
and they now support him earnestly. After his con- 
nection with the Tariff Act of 1883 Major McKin- 
ley was admitted as the leading tariff advocate, its 
best exponent. Older men retired in his favor. He 
had won his promotion by merit, by work, and he 
deserved it. It was hard, earnest effort that ad- 
vanced him. Naturally bright and intellectual, he 
improved his opportunities, and succeeded where 
men who might be more brilliant, but less studious 
and solid, failed. 

The Act of 1883 was largely McKinley's. He 
and Judge Kelley had worked on it together, and 
each sought to give the other credit for it. The 
Morrison horizontal reduction bill came up the next 
year, and here McKinley fought free trade, the 
menace of reduced duties, with energy. He battled 
in vain, because the Democracy was in the majority 
in the House, but his speeches, his arguments, his 
figures, his logic, added to his great reputation. In 
this fight Judge Kelley and Major McKinley were 



:\I(■l\I.\LI•;^■ i\ cox (iu ess 71 

again intimately associated. They labored together 
for protection, for the preservation of our indus- 
tries, and staved off the era of free trade — the ex- 
periment with a lower tariff that seemed inevitable. 
The Morrison bill proposed to reduce the duties in 
the Act of March od , 1888, by twenty per cent. This 
was the bill at which the Democrats had laughed 
because a Tariff Commission had aided in framing 
it. It was a singular anomaly that the Democrats 
should have brought in this measure, the one they 
had assaulted so vigorously, in exactly the same 
shape as it had been enacted, with the exception of 
the horizontal reduction of duties. 

The Morrison bill never became a law, thanks to 
a Rejoublican Senate, but it gave Major McKinley an 
opportunity to display his wonderful command of 
the tariff subject, to patriotically oppose the destruc- 
tion of industrial America. It is a striking contrast 
— the fates of Morrison and McKinley. Morrison 
was defeated for Congress after that measure had 
passed the House, and became the chairman of the 
Commission on Interstate Commerce. McKinley 
was defeated for Congress after the passage of his 
tariff bill, and became Governor of Ohio. Morrison 
has been a Presidential aspirant ever since, and no 
one has recognized him except a few personal friends, 
and in his own brain alone has the Presidential bee 
developed. McKinley never permitted a bee to buzz 
until the people demanded that he should run. 
Twice he declined the nomination, or rather refused 



72 McKINLEY IN CONGRESS 

to permit his name to be used when a nomination 
was possible. 

Up to 1884 Major McKiuley had been known 
chiefly for his connection with Congress. He had by 
that time a national reputation, and was appreciated 
as a rising man. He had not, however, entered into 
the domain of national politics, nor taken any con- 
siderable part in Ohio affairs. He had simply rep- 
resented his district in Congress, but Ohio was be- 
ginning to claim him as one of her great men. In 
1884 he was made permanent chairman of the Repub- 
lican State Convention at Cleveland. He displayed 
satisfactory j^arliamentary abilities there. He was 
for Blaine for President, representing the sentiments 
of his constituents. Sherman was a candidate, but 
Ohio, as usual, was divided, and was frittering away 
her strength. The Blaine men exceeded in their en- 
thusiasm, but the Sherman men seemed to be better 
organized. They were managed by competent poli- 
ticians, such as have always surrounded John Sher- 
man in his native State. At that convention Mc- 
Kinley made a speech which was as admirable as are 
all his deliveries. It is perhaps worth reproducing 
in part. He, in purely extemporaneous form, drew 
a comparison between Republicanism and Democ- 
racy, that is as true to-day as it was twelve years ago. 
" The difference,'* said he, " between the Republi- 
can and Democratic parties is this — the Republican 
party never made a promise which it has not kept, 
and the Democratic party never made a promise 



McKINLEY IN CONGRESS 7« . 

which it has kept. Not in its whole history, com- 
mencing from 1856 down to the present hour, is 
there a single promise made by the Republican party 
to the people that it has not faithfully kept. And 
then it is not a laggard party. If there is any one 
thing the people like, it is courage. They neither 
like laggards nor do they like shams ; and the Dem- 
ocratic party is the embodiment of both." How 
true are those words to-day, how aptly they describe 
the Democracy. 

It was at this convention that Major McKinley 
showed stern determination to be true to a friend. 
With Blaine men and Sherman men fighting for 
the supremacy there, the contest was necessarily for 
the delegates-at-large. McKinley had promised 
friends who desired to go as delegates that he would 
not be a candidate. When Judge King of Mahon- 
ing named McKinley, the Major, from the platform, 
withdrew his own name. There was a sentiment for 
McKinley which would not be stilled. King of 
Muskingum put a motion to elect McKinley a dele- 
gate, but McKinley, as chairman, declared the 
motion out of order. General Grosvenor, since 
famous for his accurate figures of the progress of 
the McKinley boom for the Presidency, put the 
motion again and held it was carried. Again did 
McKinley rule it out of order. His decision was 
appealed from. He was not sustained, and General 
Grosvenor put the motion still again to elect Mc- 
Kinley delegate-at-large, and it was done. McKinley 



74 McKINLEY IX CONGRESS 

would not have it, and again he was overruled, i i 
spite of his appeals. Finally there was a roll-call 
and, McKinley insisting that his name be not voted 
for, was elected. In that Chicago convention Mc- 
Kinley made a name. He assumed the duties of 
leader of the Blaine men at one time and prevented 
an adjournment that was hostile to Blaine and 
Blaine was nominated. He wrote the platform that 
year, as chairman of the committee on resolutions. 
This was his first leadership in national politics. 
He had made himself famous in that convention. 




HON. WM. McKIXLEY'S FATHER. 




Hon. ^y^L :\:cKI^'LEY'S MOTHER. 



CHAPTER IV. 

F\rst experience as a candidate for the Presidency— Trying times and 
personal triumph in Chicago— Prosperity under the McKinley 
Law— Gerrymandered out of Congress— Governor of Ohio. 

In 1888 Ohio went to Chicago solid for John 
Sherman. Difficulties had been patclied up and 
Ohio for the first time in years was united. Two 
Ohio men were particularly prominent in their 
efforts for Sherman. These were Foraker and Mc- 
Kinley. Each was considered at different times 
during the convention as a Presidential possibility. 
McKinley was more prominent in that connection 
and he there declined to be presented as a candidate. 
It will be recalled that there were a nnraber of Presi- 
dential candidates, including Sherman, Harrison, 
Gresham, Depew, Allison, and Alger. The contest 
was rather prolonged. There was a strong senti- 
ment for Blaine, but he prevented any action on hi& 
name by a cablegram from Scotland. During the 
fight Ohio stood solidly for Sherman. Foraker was 
chairman of the delegation. McKinley was recog- 
nized as a force, and was roundly cheered whenevei 
he came into the hall. 

77 



78 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 

As the contest went on it seemed as if a solution 
would be difficult. The convention was becoming 
weary of balloting. There was an admirable chance 
for a dark horse. When it came to the sixth ballot 
some one voted for the Major. The convention 
cheered. Then he was given seventeen votes by a 
State following. It looked as if McKinley would 
be the man. It seemed imj^ossible to prevent it. It 
was recognized that he was able and brilliant, safe 
and sound on all political subjects. His labor for 
Sherman, his pleas for the Ohio Senator as he went 
from delegation to delegation, had won him support 
for himself. 

It was a most trying time for the Ohio protection- 
ist. He was then but forty-five years old, and seemed 
younger, as with pallid face he stepped on a chair. 
His frock coat was buttoned tightly around him. 
His eyes flashed forth the fire that is so character- 
istic of them, when he is in earnest. There was a 
stern look in his face. The convention was silent. 
The buzz had ceased. Delegates and spectators 
leaned forward to catch what he was about to say. 
There was a feeling that he was about to relinquish 
the Presidential prize, that he was to sacrifice ambi- 
tion to gain renown by faithfulness to a trust. As 
he spoke his voice rang through the great audi- 
torium. There was a defiant tone to it. It was 
commanding. It was irresistible. He said : 

" Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : 
I am here as one of the chosen representatives of my 



McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 79 

State. I am here b}^ resolution of the Republican 
State Convention, commanding me to cast my vote 
for John Sherman for President, and to use every 
worthy endeavor to secure his nomination. I ac- 
cepted the trust, because my heart and judgment were 
in accord with the letter and spirit and purpose of 
that resolution. It has pleased certain delegates to 
cast their votes for me for President. I am not in- 
sensible to the honor they would do me, but in the 
presence of the duty resting upon me I cannot remain 
silent with honor. I cannot consistently with the 
wish of the State whose credentials I bear, and which 
has trusted me ; I cannot consistently with my own 
views of personal integrity, consent, or seem to con- 
sent, to permit my name to be used as a candidate 
before this convention. I would not respect myself 
if I could find it in my heart to do or to permit to 
be done that which could even be ground for any one 
to suspect that I wavered in my loyalty to Ohio, or 
my devotion to the chief of her choice and the chief 
of mine. I do not request — I demand that no dele- 
gate who would not cast reflection upon me shall 
cast a ballot for me." 

That settled it. McKinley had won. He received 
no more votes and Harrison was named on the 
seventh ballot. An eye-witness remembers going 
into the Ohio headquarters before this incident had 
occurred. There was talk of McKinley for Presi- 
dent that night. The Major was in an inner room. 
He looked tired. There were lines of care on his 



80 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 

face. It was on the Sunday prior to the final ad- 
journment. Everywhere outside there was excite- 
ment. Bands were j^laying and clubs marching. 
McKinley was outwardly calm. It was apparent 
that he was bothered though. He talked for ten or 
fifteen minutes, when it was suggested that he might 
be nominated, and said : " No, that will not happen 
here. I came here for John Sherman, I shall stand 
by him until he is nominated or defeated, but I shall 
not be named." It was on that night that he 
visited the New Jersey delegation. He had heard 
that the New Jersey delegation proposed to vote for 
him. He intended to prevent it, and made a stir- 
ring appeal to the chairman of that delegation. 
The Major spoke with suj^pressed feeling until he 
said in finishing : " Rather than that I would sufier 
the loss of that good right arm. Yes, I would suffer 
death. To accept a nomination, if one were possi- 
ble, under these circumstances, would inevitably 
lead to my defeat, and it ought to lead to my 
defeat." The last words sounded like a clarion. 
Then the Major asked the New Jersey delegation to 
vote for Sherman. 

THE McKINLEY BILL. 

Major McKinley took an especially prominent 
part in opjDosing the Mills bill when it was consid- 
ered during the Fiftieth Congress. This was an 
ultra free-trade bill. There was no horizontal re- 
duction about it. It was j^lain free trade. Mills 



McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 81 

came from Texas, a State without industries. He 
cared little for the industrial communities. He was 
a theorist, and a more rabid free-trader than Profes- 
sor Wilson. The fight in the House lasted for a long 
time. Carlisle was Speaker, and naturally friendly 
to the bill. Randall was opposing it. McKin- 
ley was, too. As a member of the Ways and Means 
Committee, he showed up its fallacies, its menace to 
the country. He could not defeat it, because the 
Democrats were in the majority, but, nevertheless, 
he made many telling points. It was a great fight. 
Randall was his friend. They had been drawn to- 
gether by a community of interests, for each was a 
protectionist. One was trying to prevent his party 
from taking the wrong road, while the other was 
leading his in the right direction, 

McKinley, during that fight, displayed better 
than ever his wonderful ability as a debater, and 
many is the Democrat whom he disturbed by his 
arguments for protection. Mr. Randall was closing 
the general debate on the bill the last day before the 
debate under the five-minute rule. Major McKin- 
ley was to follow him. Randall had not finislied his 
speech when his time was up. His friends asked 
for an extension of time, but Colonel Mills objected. 
He feared the piercing arguments of his colleague. 
Here it was that McKinley showed his characteristic 
courtesy. He arose and yielded his time to the able 
Democratic protectionist. 

The November elections of 1888 had given the 



82 MeiaNLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 

Republicans a majority in the House. The free- 
trade folly of the Democracy had beaten it. Mr. 
Keed and Major McKinley were among the candi- 
dates for Speaker. After a hot fight Mr. Reed won, 
and appointed Major McKinley as chairman of the 
Ways and Means Committee, thus making him 
leader of the House. Judge Kelley had died, and 
it was but natural that McKinley, the great protec- 
tionist, should have been made chairman of that 
important committee. During the twelve years of 
his congressional life he had been preparing for 
the opportunity. He had mastered the tariff, and 
was ready for the work before him. The Act of 
1883 was producing too much revenue. The changes 
of conditions since its passage had made it necessary 
to revise it. It was to be revised by hands friendly 
to protection. Major McKinley was the man to 
direct the work. The object was to reduce revenue 
and to equalize duties where necessary, to adjust 
them to the prevailing conditions, to afford protec- 
tion to American industries and farmers. 

For this work Major McKinley gave his time. He 
labored early and late. The committee gave hear- 
ings and worked incessantly. Major McKinley did 
not permit his daily work at the capitol to end that on 
the tariff. He was busy until midnight and later 
in his office at the Ebbitt House, studying the question 
more thoroughly, listening to arguments in favor of 
certain duties, laying out the plans of the tariff. It 
was a herculean task. He never swerved. His good 



McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 83 

health and regular habits gave him the strength to 
perform the almost impossible work. Under his 
direction no interest was permitted to be injured. 
No duties were fixed without every condition tliat 
surrounded them had been considered. The work 
was thorough. It was honest. The result of this 
continuous a23plication by Major McKinley and the 
other members of the committee was that the bill, 
when finished, was the best, the most complete bill 
ever produced. 

The committee was even more thorough in its work 
than the tariff commission had been. Possibly it 
may be well to explain that Mr. Cleveland had, 
prior to the election of the Fifty-first Congress, trans- 
mitted a free-trade tariff measure to the House. The 
issue was accepted by the Republican leaders, and it 
was thereon that General Harrison was elected Presi- 
dent, along with the Reed-McKinley Congress. 
The Republican party that had been a protective 
institution for some time, but not so much so as the 
President's message, defining as it did the difference 
between Republican and Democratic revenue poli- 
cies, enabled it to become in that campaign. It was 
to keep the pledge made to the peo23le in 1888, to re- 
vise the tariff with friendly hands, that Major Mc- 
Kinley and his committee set to work. 

The Major, in presenting his wonderful bill to the 
House, did not feel compelled to discuss at length 
the difference between the economic policies of the 
two parties. The people understood them, and with 



84 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEAES 

that knowledge had elected that Congress. The bill 
reduced taxation on internal revenue products over 
seventy millions, and as McKinley said in offering 
it to the House for its consideration : " The tariff 
part of the bill contemplates and proposes a corn2^1ete 
revision. It not only changes the rates of duty, but 
modifies the general provisions of the law relat- 
ing to the collection of duties. These modifications 
have received the approval of the treasury depart- 
ment." The administrative features of the McKinley 
law — there were really two laws, the administrative 
one being enacted in July, 1890 — was really the joint 
work of McKinley and Senator Allison. Mr. Alli- 
son had had a bill on that line j^assed in the Con- 
gress before, and McKinley took it up and improved 
I on it. It was so admirable in all of its features that 

it was little changed by the Democrats when they so 
disastrously passed the sugar- trust- Wilson- Gorman- 
Brice tariff bill in 1894. 

It is useless to go into an extended comment on the 
tariff fight. One thing about the bill that is worth 
remembering is, that it recognized more fully than 
P had been done before the fact that wherever possible, 

I specific duties are the better, because they prevent un- 

der-valuations that fraudulently reduce the revenues, 
and thus at the same time the rates of duties. The 
McKinley bill also established an industry. The 
advance of the duty on tin plate made it possible to 
manufacture these plates in America. The Demo- 
cratic campaign orators and others deliberately lied 



McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 85 

about this. The McKinley tariff established nearly 
two hundred mills for the manufacture of tin plate, 
which had an average of five million boxes a year. 
The American dinner-pail and the American can- 
ning factories were benefited by this and would 
have been even more so had it not been for the 
reduction of duty on tin plate made in 1894 by 
the Wilson bill. Yet, established as they were, 
they have struggled along somehow or other, though 
there are fewer mills than there would have been, 
and they are not producing as much tin plate. That 
was one great result of the McKinley bill. 

The Major, in the debate in favor of the bill, 
called attention to the fact that the protective tariff 
had never failed It had aided in reducing a debt 
of $2,750,000,000 at the close of the war at a rate of 
sixty-two millions each year, or one hundred and 
seventy-four thousand dollars each day, and made 
the debt less than one billion. It might be men- 
tioned here that Grover Cleveland's present adminis- 
tration has added $265,315,400 to the interest bear- 
ing debt since it came into power, or more than eighty 
millions a year, and most of this increase was caused 
by the Democratic tariff bill's revenue deficiencies. 

The McKinley bill was amended in the Senate. 
It is the habit of some people to assume that the 
Senate had more to do with it than Major McKinley. 
Without proposing to detract one whit from the 
reputation of such able men as Senators Allison and 
Aldrich, who have fought in the Senate the battle of 



86 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 

protection for years, who stood manfully against the 
Wilson bill and did much to lessen its dangers to 
industries, it may be said that though amended in 
the Senate these amendments were in the line of what 
Major McKinley approved, such as were made neces- 
sary by conditions. The principle was his and most 
of the schedules. More than three-quarters of the 
changes of duties made by the Act of 1890 — the 
McKinley bill — were made in the House. It is not 
worth while to discuss these changes and the causes 
of them. Suffice it to say that Major McKinley did 
the greatest amount of Avork on the tariff of 1890. 
He inspired it, and had it not been for him it might 
not have been enacted. The question is not so much 
one of schedules as of principle. The purpose of the 
McKinley bill was to produce protection and it suc- 
ceeded in that. For his share of it Major McKinley 
deserves credit, and his labor was the greatest of any 
one concerned in constructing the measure. The 
Republican party appreciated this, and, therefore, 
nominated him at St. Louis. 

The McKinley bill has been misrepresented, ma- 
ligned, misconstrued, vilified, and all needlessly. 
The Democrats were intent upon their policy of free 
trade and started an agitation that resulted in the 
passage of the sugar trust tariff. The people now 
understand the differences between McKinley protec- 
tion and Wilson free trade. There is no object lesson 
needed. The people have it now. Protection and its 
importance and necessity is understood thoroughly. 



MeKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 87 

Besides establishing the tin-plate industry the 
McKinley bill made sugar free, and the workman 
and manufacturer got his sugar twenty pounds for 
the dollar as a result. That was a great boon, the 
greatest possible. The Wilson bill places a duty on 
it at the dictation of the sugar trust. That is a con- 
trast between the two parties. Never did the coun- 
try see better times, never were more men employed, 
never were people happier than under the McKinley 
bill, before a Democratic Congress and President had 
been elected to produce i^anic, depression, and disas- 
ter. Mills were running, everybody was employed, 
business brisk. It is needless to do more than men- 
tion this, because the past three years have showed 
the people the truth. 

In Patchogue, New York, is a lace curtain factory 
which was established through protection — McKin- 
leyism. Plushes are also now manufactured here, a 
great factory having moved from Huddersfield for 
that purpose. It brought capital and gave employ- 
ment to labor. Instead of sending our money 
abroad for plushes, we buy them here ; the wages of 
the workmen who make them are paid here. Then 
pearl buttons are now made here and they were not 
before, but why continue this argument for protec- 
tion ? It is not needed. 

In dealing with the McKinley bill it is perhaps 
worth while to explain the reciprocity features. It 
has often been agreed that he and Mr. Blaine were 
not in accord on that, that McKinley was compelled 



88 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 

to yield to the forcefulness of Blaine. Major Mc- 
Kiiiley never opposed it. He never sought to take 
from Mr. Blaine the credit for reciprocity. He has 
always admitted its importance and the advantages 
that accrued from it. Perhiips there can be no better 
way to describe the matter than by quoting from an 
intimate friend of ex-Secretary Blaine. The gentle- 
man referred to is William E. Curtis, formerly Secre- 
tary of the Bureau of American Republics, and at 
present the Washington correspondent of the Chi- 
cago Record. Mr. Curtis is a man of marked ability 
and high character. On August 19th, 1891, he was 
interviewed by a reporter of the Massillon, O., Inde- 
pendent. Mr. Curtis said that Mr. Blaine opposed 
any disturbance of the duties on South American 
products. To this the Ways and Means Committee 
did not agree. Then Mr. Curtis proceeded to say: 

"When Mr. Blaine found that it was proposed to 
remove the duty on sugar he sent me to Mr. McKin- 
ley with a proposition which he wanted added to the 
bill as an amendment. It afterward became known 
as the Hale amendment. It provided that the Pres- 
ident should be authorized to take off the duty on 
sugar whenever the sugar-producing nations removed 
their duties on our farm products and certain other 
articles. 

" Mr. McKinley presented this amendment to the 
Committee on Ways and Means. It was not adopted. 
Mr. McKinley voted for it the first time it was pre- 
sented. Then a second proposition containing some 



MeKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEAKS 89 

modifications was presented, and Mr. McKinley voted 
for that, as lie voted for the Blaine reciprocity 
amendment every time it was submitted in whatever 
form. 

" It has been currently reported that Mr. Blaine 
denounced the McKinley bill with such vigor that 
he smashed his hat. Mr. Blaine's opposition to the 
bill was because of the free sugar clause. He criti- 
cised the refusal of Congress to take advantage of 
conditions which he thought were favorable to our 
trade. They j^roposed to throw away the duty on 
sugar when he wanted them to trade with it. 

" When what was known as the Aldrich amend- 
ment was adopted Mr. Blaine was perfectly satisfied, 
and there is nothing in the current tales that he is 
unfriendly to Major McKinley. On the contrary, 
he is one of his warmest friends. Had it not been 
for Mr. McKinley and Senator Aldrich, of Rhode 
Island, the reciprocity clause in the Tariff Act would 
never have been adopted." 



DEFEATED FOR CONGRESS; ELECTED GOVERNOR. 

The McKinley bill became a law on October 1st, 
1890. The Republican party was immediately 
rushed into a hot campaign. The measure they 
supported had not yet been fully understood, had not 
had a chance to demonstrate its advantages. The 
election of 1890 was disastrous for the party and 
many men fell, the Democrats securing an unprece- 



90 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YBABS 

dented majority in Congress. McKinley was one 
of those marked for slaughter. He had to contend 
against j^eculiar disadvantages. His district had 
been gerrymandered by the Legislature of Ohio, 
which was Democratic. Stark County, in which 
the Major lived, was placed in a district with three 
counties, Holmes, Wayne, and Medina, which the 
year before had given James E. Campbell a majority 
of 3,900. His own county was close, often Demo- 
cratic, so Major McKinley had a hard fight before 
him. Nothing daunted he made it, appreciating 
that defeat was not unlikely. In truth the Legisla- 
ture had singled him out for retirement. His oppo- 
nent was ex-Lieutenant-Governor Warwick, a man 
of no force, but personally j^opular. It was a des- 
perate fight. McKinley was everywhere, address- 
ing people peculiarly strange to him. He knew, 
how hard his path was, but he did not hesitate. 

It was really one of the most notable contests in 
recent years. The power and force of the national 
Democracy was centered against him. Able speakers 
came to oppose him. The adroit David B. Hill, of 
New York, spent a week in the district. Mills was 
there and there were others. One county was very 
benighted. It has the reputation of having less 
education to the square inch than any other county 
in Ohio. It is very strongly Democratic, the major- 
ity often reaching 2,500. There McKinley met his 
worst enemy. Peddlers had been employed at so 
much per day to go through the country selling tin- 



MeKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 91 

cups at extravagant prices. The people of the county 
were amazed. They asked the reason why. The 
answer was that the McKinley bill had done it. 
Democratic shopkeepers were employed to ask addi- 
tional prices for their goods, and it was the same 
answer, " The McKinley bill did it." Just to think 
of it, tin-cups, such as are ordinarily used for drink- 
ing purposes, were retailed at a dollar apiece ! It was 
an awful lie to overcome. 

McKinley was defeated, but by 303 votes only. 
He polled two and a half thousand more votes in the 
district than General Harrison had two years before. 
It was a beggarly victory, indeed. It retired Major 
McKinley from Congress, but it made him his party's 
candidate for Governor the following year. The 
people of Ohio demanded it. The Republican leaders 
of the State saw that it was the thing to do. The 
vast majority of the party workers insisted upon his 
nomination. Major McKinley was living in Canton 
after the end of the Fifty-first Congress. He was 
approached and said he would not decline a nomina- 
tion. 

The convention that nominated him was a mag- 
nificent one. It was com230sed of the representative 
men of the party. Ex-Governor Foraker moved 
the nomination of the Major and ex-Governor Fos- 
ter moved to make it unanimous. The writer was 
present as a delegate and reporter. The scene when 
the Major came to the platform to accept the nomi- 
nation is almost indescribable. The delegates would 



02 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEAES 

not permit him to speak for some moments, they 
cheered so loudly. They were enthusiastic. The 
convention felt that victory was certain. They were 
to a man for McKinley. There was no ill-feeling 
beneath the surface. It was as harmonious a con- 
vention as Ohio ever held. 

The campaign was opened toward the last of 
August, and Major McKinley made one of his won- 
derful campaigns. He was in every county battling 
for protection and against free silver. The Cleve- 
land convention of the Democrats had adopted a 
straightout free silver platform by a majority of 100. 
Cincinnati was opposing Campbell's nomination. 
Cincinnati Democrats were for good money. The 
convention was piqued at the Hamilton County peo- 
ple, and as a matter of spite, so it appeared to the 
writer^ many delegates voted for free silver because 
Hamilton County was opposed to it. The silver 
sentiment was strong in the Democratic ranks, but 
there was a possibility that it might have been over- 
come had Hamilton County not been in bad odor. 
The campaign was an exciting one. The Democrats 
had carried the State against Foraker two years be- 
fore, and they were determined to do so this time. 
They were unsuccessful, for McKinley was elected 
by more than 21,000 plurality. 

McKinley was the nominee of his party in 1893. 
That renomination also was unanimous. The Demo- 
cratic opponent was Lawrence T. Neal, a rabid free- 
trader. He made a close campaign, but was beaten 




FIRST M. E. CHURCH AT CAXTOX, 
Where Hon. \Vm. McKinley Attends 



McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 95 

from the beginning. The writer accompanied Major 
McKinley during that campaign, traveling with him 
into every county but six. The people arose en masse 
everywhere to see him. It was a triumphal journey 
throughout. Every hall v>^here a meeting was held 
was overcrowded. It was often almost impossible to 
enter. Many open-air meetings were held, and greater 
crowds never heard a speaker in Ohio. The Gov- 
ernor never was in better form. He stood the trials 
of the campaign sturdily, wearing out some of those 
who were with him. He never seemed to mind 
fatigue. It was a hard campaign for the newspaper 
men. There were so many things to be said of the 
meetings, so many speeches by the Governor to be 
reported. The election was a greater triumph than 
the one two years before. McKinley received a plu- 
rality of 80,995. 

At the Minneapolis convention that nominated 
Harrison, McKinley was permanent chairman. 
There was an undercurrent in favor of his nomina- 
tion. He had gone as a Harrison delegate, and he 
fought against the sentiment in his own favor. It 
was hard to keep down. Even his own State was 
permeated Avith it. His best friends would not 
listen to his pleas to them to let him alone. It will 
be remembered that there was only one ballot for 
the Presidency. Before Ohio had been reached 
seventy-four votes had been cast for McKinley. His 
protests had been unavailing. There was a hush in 
the convention as Ohio was called. Chairman Nash 



96 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 

of the delegation arose and announced two votes for 
Harrison and forty-four for McKinley. The Gov- 
ernor jumped from his chair and challenged the vote. 
He was told that he had not the right to do so, since 
his alternate was sitting there. Chairman McKinley 
insisted that he had. Ex-Governor Foraker made a 
point of order that McKinley could not challenge 
the vote, and Chairman McKinley overruled it. He 
demanded the calling of the roll of Ohio's delegates. 
It was found that McKinley had forty-five votes and 
Harrison one, and the one for Harrison was cast by 
McKinley. He had been true to Harrison, but he 
could not control the sentiment of his State and pre- 
vent it from standing by him. Once before he had 
prevented his nomination by fighting it himself, but 
it was not to be permitted again. The Governor at 
that convention showed clearly his high idea of 
honor. It was natural for him to do so. 

William McKinley was a model Governor. When 
he was inaugurated, in January, 1892, he knew very 
little of Ohio affairs, except such as he had gleaned 
in his various readings. Of course he knew the his- 
tory of the Buckeye State, was fully conversant with 
its industries and needs, but as to State affairs, those 
with which he would have to deal, he was unin- 
formed. However, he went to work to study the 
duties of his office thoroughly. He was a good judge 
of men. He made admirable appointments always. 
He managed the institutions of the State economi- 
cally. He kept down appropriations wherever 



McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 97 

possible, but, having no veto power, was seriously 
handicapped. However, his personal influence 
tended to reduce the danger of unfortunate legisla- 
tion. 

The National Guard of the State reached its highest 
efficiency under his two terms. They were in good 
fighting trim and were several times called out. 
There was a strike in the coal-mining regions of the 
State. As soon as it became apparent that troops 
were needed to preserve order. Governor McKinley 
ordered them out. There was no hesitancy, no fear 
of its efiect on his political future. The Governor 
saw his duty and did it. As a result there was 
no bloodshed. The troops behaved admirably. 
Again, when there had been a horrible crime in 
Washington Court House, and the people of the 
town were about to lynch the criminal, Governor 
McKinley sent his troops there. They were under 
the command of a Democratic officer, Colonel Coit, 
of the Fourteenth Regiment. In the performance of 
his duty he ordered them to fire. Some were killed. 
The Governor sustained him, and did what he could 
to see that Coit got a fair trial when he was arrested 
on the charge of murder. And again the Ohio 
troops prevented trouble during the A. R. U.-Debs 
revolution. Ohio has never had a Governor who 
preserved better order, who had more courage in 
handling the difficult questions that came before him 
than did Governor McKinley. He retired from the 
governorship because he wanted to do so. They do 



98 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEAES 

not believe in third terms in Ohio, and McKinley, 
able and admirable Governor that he was, would not 
go counter to traditions, tiiough he could have had 
the nomination and would have been elected. 



CHAPTER V. 

McKinley's career in few words — The charm of his personal chai^ 
acter — His habits of labor— Devotion to friends and family. 

HIS life has been of great activity and suc- 
cess, wrought by himself, advanced by 
no influence, but earned by labor and 
study, by patriotism and statesmanship. It is a 
record creditable throughout, and in it there is no 
stain, no action that needs to be excused, nothing 
tliat must be defended, nothing that can be assaulted 
— a manly, courageous, laborious, serious, earnest, 
thorough, conscientious life, devoted to the service of 
his country, and beautified by a devotion to his wife 
that is as admirable as it is exceptional. Though 
Major McKinley fought and struggled for every pre- 
ferment he secured, there is nothing unusual in the 
advance of a young man in America from humble 
surroundings to leadership — to the Presidency. But 
McKinley's career has been so singularly jiatriotic, 
so constantly opposed, because of the great principle 
of protection that he advocated, so serious, so clean, 
so brilliant, and so safe that it is most noteworthy. 
The distinction just conferred on him was earned. 

Major McKinley's life has not been without its de- 
feats, its bitterness through misrepresentation, its 
sorrow because of loss of children and his wife's in- 
validism, but a full conviction in the propriety, 

09 



100 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 

righteousness, and importance of the cause which he 
has largely represented, as well as a courageous be- 
lief that the American people would ultimately ap- 
prove his policy and appreciate his labors, for its 
maintenance has guided and encouraged him, and now 
he is about to reap the fruits of his life's labor by 
election to the Presidency. The first return for his 
self-sacrifice, for his devotion to country, for his pa- 
triotism, for his integrity, and for his abilities comes 
through the nomination just given him. It was 
a nomination made by the people three years ago 
when it became evident to all that the election of 
Grover Cleveland was a serious error, that the cry 
of tariff reform was a fraud, that the party which 
desired to destroy protection was a menace. The 
people, the workmen, the farmers, the merchants, 
the capitalists — all joined together in a demand that 
he be nominated. Their earnestness overcame the 
claims of others, some of them of distinguished 
merit. It disregarded the services of several men of 
statesmanship stature and it was obtained in opposi- 
tion to the wishes and despite the interference of 
some professional politicians. The people were not 
satisfied until McKinley was nominated. For sev- 
eral months before the convention it was apparent 
that McKinley would be the candidate, though he 
had competitors of the highest distinction. Those 
who in his Ohio campaign saw how the people 
revered him, how they longed for a return to 
his policy of protection, believed from the time 



PEESONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 101 

of these contests that his nomination was inevit- 
able. 

He is deserving of the distinction given him, and 
it is undoubted that he has earned the advancement, 
indisputable that he is able, steadfast, firm, manly, 
trustworthy, safe, and able. The people insisted upon 
his nomination and it was made. It is then, without 
question, a popular choice, the selection by the peo- 
ple of one of the people to be the people's President. 
But two other Kepublican Presidential candidates 
were practically chosen before the convention assem- 
bled. These were heroes, and each of them men of 
and from the people. One was Abraham Lincoln, 
who was without real opposition, chosen for a sec- 
ond term by a grateful party representing a brave 
and patriotic people, that honored and revered the 
man who helped the country through the dark and 
sad and troublous days of the war with patience, man- 
liness, and success. The other was Ulysses S. Grant, 
who was twice nominated with practical unanimity. 
Grant was a military hero, chosen because of his ser- 
vices in the field, and not at first by reason of any 
notable ability as a statesman. Each was a hero, 
each a patriot, and each in a different Avay. William 
McKinley is both soldier and statesman. As a boy, 
before he had left his teens, he was an officer, fighting 
in the field, enduring privations, and risking his life 
for the nation. As a man, he developed in intellec- 
tual force, strengthened by experience and study, in- 
spired with belief in the truth and necessity of the 



102 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 

policy lie advocated, and spurred on by antagonism. 
McKinley is a patriot. Lincoln freed the slaves. 
McKiuley will relieve the country from free trade, 
from poverty, and from depression. 

Mckinley's personality. 

The world knows William McKinley as a public 
man. His individuality is not understood, though 
here and there glimpses have been had of his i)erson- 
ality, which have added to the respect in which he is 
held. It is not surprising that Major McKinley is 
not so well known as a private citizen, as a neighbor, 
and friend. The public has been more concerned 
with what he has accomplished, with what he repre- 
sents, and with ^Yhat he has opposed. The other side 
has not been brought out, except incidentally. 

There is a warmth of feeling, a generosity of spirit, 
a sincerity, a purity of thought, a domesticity, an 
affectionate disposition, a depth of character, a vein 
of humor, a reserve, a patience under difficulties, a 
devotion to friends, a personal attractiveness and a 
breadth of character that make him admirable and 
lovable, that delights and benefits, that charms and 
wins, that inspires, and never wearies, that pleases 
and gratifies, and that makes one glad to see him, 
sorry to leave him, charmed to know him, and jiroud 
to be his friend. There is a magnetism that is 
attractive, a sunniness of disposition that is unex- 
pected at first, an evenness of temper that is unusual, 



PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 103 

a resignation that is composed, a reserve that is not 
often broken, but when it is there is a reward in 
the manliness, charitableness, friendliness, affection, 
trustfulness and confidence of the man. 

Though imbued and filled with the imj^ortance of 
the principles of the party of which he has so long 
been a leader. Major McKinley is not self-centered, 
neither is he selfish, for he often sacrifices for others, 
always ready often to inconvenience himself for the 
pleasure or benefit of his friends. A man who has 
had as much admiration, as much flattery, as much 
success must necessarily understand that he has 
ability, must be confident of his powers, but in 
AVilliam McKinley that is not accompanied by con- 
ceit, for he is diflident, modest almost to bashfulness, 
but experience has made it jDossible for him to con- 
trol his tendency to seek obscurity, to enjoy quiet 
instead of strife. 

Major McKinley did not become a Presidential can- 
didate because he sought honors, neither did he run 
for Governor of Ohio because he desired the ofiice. He 
did not try to continue in Congress because he was 
anxious to remain in public life. There are those 
who may be unbelievers in this ; but he did so be- 
cause he felt he had a duty to f)erform, a mission 
to accomplish. Were he to follow the inclinations 
of his wife and of himself he would not be a public 
man now. He would not be about to go through an 
exacting campaign. On the contrary, years ago he 
would have settled down to the life of a lawyer, 



104 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 

going liis way quietly and unostentatiously. His 
entrance into public life was almost a chance. That 
naturally resulted in his continuance therein. His 
services to the country have been at the sacrifice of 
money, for, as a lawyer, he could have earned, even 
in Canton, far more than he did as Representative 
or as Governor. 

For ten years, each time Major McKinley has run 
for office, he did it in hesitation, because of the pro- 
tests of his wife. To her his public career has been 
a sacrifice for country. She has felt that he has 
given far more than he received. On the day following 
his triumphal re-election to the Governorship of Ohio 
by a majority of nearly 82,000, Mrs. McKinley was 
told that her husband would be the next President of 
the United States. She shook her head firmly, and said 
he would not, that the Governorship was his last 
consent to stand for public office. She meant that, but 
she yielded to the exigencies of the situation, and as 
a good wife did what she could to aid him, preferring 
all the while that he should be a private citizen. 
Naturally Major McKinley is pleased and gratified 
with his political advancement. He would not be 
human if he were not, but he looks at it less as a 
2)ersonal victory than as the success of a principle 
which he holds most dear, and believes must be re- 
stored to the statute books, in such form as to suit 
the existing conditions. 

There is one characteristic in Major McKinley 
that the newspaper man does not like. He refrains 



PERSONAL SIDE OE McKINLEY 105 

from discussing questions for publication ; declines to 
talk about them. While he was chairman of the 
Committee on Ways and Means in the Fifty-fii'st 
Congress, when the tariff bill was before his com- 
mittee in process of construction, he almost invaria- 
bly declined to give news of its progress. Possibly 
he did not know what news was. Certainly he would 
never tell a man about it. Skillful con-espondents, 
accustomed to deal with public men, found difficulty 
in exacting information from him. The better the 
newsman knew the Major the less he secured, for his 
questions would be answered fully, but there would 
be an injunction of reserve that prevented any ad- 
vantage from being obtained. Major McKinley 
never sought newsjDaper notoriety. He always 
shrank from it. 

William McKinley is naturally dignified ; but he 
himself is a tease, and a persistent one if the per- 
son made subject of his humor is teasable. It is 
not exactly mischievousness, but a kindly, friendly, 
and harmless pleasantry, showing an insight into 
character that often takes one by surprise. But 
no one ever takes any liberties with Major McKin- 
ley. No one ever slapped him on the back without 
finding that it was not an agreeable act. In fact, 
the better one learns to know Mr. McKinley the 
greater is the respect. There is no familiarity per- 
mitted, and, consequently, no contempt. 

While Major McKinley does not yearn to be 
made the butt of a joke, he has a keen sense of 



106 PEKSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 

humor, and can tell a good story as well as he can 
make a tariff speech. He is delighted, when there 
are no more serious matters to be considered, to listen 
to amusing anecdotes and incidents, and has a hearty 
and appreciative laugh. Nevertheless, he does not 
like stories that rest for their point upon some vul- 
garity. He never tells one himself, and has always 
avoided having to listen to them. McKinley is 
never profane. He seldom gives expression to irri- 
tation, but calmly accepts what comes,- patiently over- 
looking faults and situations that cannot be pre- 
vented. Many a time, when worn with prolonged 
campaigning and anxious for rest, something would 
occur that was aggravating, some arrangement would 
not be made. On one occasion he had not received 
his satchel containing a change of linen. Some one 
had blundered. It was a most provoking occur- 
rence. The Major inquired whose was the responsi- 
bility, and contented himself with repeating several 
times, in a rather reflective way, " Well, that is nice." 
Then, when the culprit appeared with the valise, 
there was no complaint ; simjjly thanks for getting it. 
Major McKinley is always courtly. He is gracious 
as well. He never forgets that he is a gentleman, 
and is as dignified and careful of his words and 
conduct when with intimate friends as he is in pub- 
lic. He never forgets himself, never lounges, though 
he will take comfortable positions. He is an invet- 
erate smoker. He likes strong cigars and enjoys 
them, and when on a campaign his companions knew 



PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 107 

where the cigar-box was in his valise, aud it was per- 
mitted for any one to go and help himself, and Major 
McKinley was pleased when he discovered he had 
been robbed. 

Major McKinley is always careful about his dress. 
His clothes fit him well, are well made, but not ex- 
travagant. They are not such as attract attention. 
He wears a short frock coat, with trousers of the 
same material. The cloth is generally a black 
diagonal, though recently he has taken to rougher 
goods, but always black. A string tie is around his 
neck, and his watch chain is pretty, but severely 
plain. He wears a silk hat most of the time, though 
when traveling frequently puts on a slouch hat, such 
as is generally styled a Fedora. He makes a point of 
wearing cloth of American manufacture, and to assert 
that anything he wore was made abroad was to be 
met with an instant denial, and the statement that 
his tailor assured him that the cloth was of Ameri- 
can make, and it always is good, strong, serviceable 
goods, that is attractive and satisfactory. 

Cleanliness is one of the traits of the next Presi- 
dent of the United States. His shoes are always 
polished and his hands well attended to. Dirt seems 
to be abhorrent to him. He shaves himself, and can 
carry on a conversation while cutting off the beard, 
and do so admirably, while it is not necessary for 
him to look into a glass to see where the razor goes. 
He never cuts himself, and shaves very close, seem- 
ingly dissatisfied until he finds that he can feel no 



108 i'ERSOXAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 

hair on the face, after running his hands over it 
several times in different directions. He is smooth- 
shaven always, and the unbearded face serves to 
bring out the strong lines, the thought-marks on the 
forehead and around the eyes, while the mouth shows 
firm lines, indicating perseverance and definiteness 
of purjDose. His jaw is rather square and strong. 
The nose is muscular and indicative of character. 
The eyes are dark and sometimes obscured by the 
shagginess of his eyebrows, but when they are lifted 
up they gleam underneath and fascinate by their 
brightness, seeming black when brightened by con- 
versation or earnestness. The Major wears his hair 
rather long. It is a dark brown, and of recent years 
gray has scattered through. It is a little thin on the 
temj^les and at the to]) of his head. It is fine and 
silky and full of electricity. The ears are small, and 
the teeth white and strong and well cared for. His 
is a remarkably refined face, showing great intel- 
lectual power, with a large head to set it off, and a 
broad forehead that is pale, as is the face, though 
exposure gives a brownish color. 

In stature Major McKinley could be classed as 
medium. He stands perhaps five feet seven inches, 
just about an inch more than General Harrison. 
His head is well set on a broad, vigorous, yet grace- 
ful pair of shoulders. He has a little embonpoint, 
which the frock coat serves to hide. His legs are 
stocky, but well turned, and the feet small. In 
walking McKinley swings his shoulders from side to 



PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 109 

side a little, goes with a firm step, the stride being 
long for one of his stature. He plants his foot firmly 
and raises it from the ground with a spring. His 
gait is brisk, active, showing that he does not waste 
time. He is not much at exercise, but often walks. 
He prefers to ride where possible, and though in his 
youthful days considerable of an athlete, he prefers 
to sit and enjoy the air outside rather than to exert 
himself by walking. Major McKinley has a deep 
chest and a broad one, too. He has great lung power, 
and always breathes deeply. If he were measured 
it would probably appear that he has a chest expan- 
sion of five or six inches at least. 

McKinley's disposition is cheerful. He never 
permits small things to worry him. Defeat never 
makes him gloomy. Possibly he is a fatalist, but 
he has such confidence in the ultimate triumph of 
the principle of protection which he represents that 
he is never discouraged. Life is serious to him, but 
that does not prevent him enjoying it. He takes 
it seriously and studiously, acquiring information 
constantly by asking questions and studying. He 
never stops a subject until he knows it thoroughly. 
When he says a thing is so, it is. He resembles 
Senator Allison in that respect. 

He is particularly charming to young people. He 
seems to understand them, and children like him, 
for he has a way of dealing with them that arouses 
confidence and then regard. 

Possibly they appeal to him because he lost his 



no PEESOKAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 

own. The children of his neighbors in Canton are 
his friends. For them he has always a cheery 
good morning and a friendly word. With the older 
people he is deferential. This is particularly notice- 
able in his treatment of his mother, who is now 
nearly eighty-eight. He sliows always the most 
affectionate interest in her welfare, while she looks 
at him with eyes that are full of pride and love. 
The Governor's father died a year ago. There was 
a friendly familiarity between them that was touch- 
ing. There was devotion on the son's part and 
admiration from the father. It is in his home life 
that McKinley is most lovable. To his wife he is 
always the lover, showing the delicate attentions 
that are so pleasing to a woman, and particularly to 
one whose health is infirm. There is a tenderness 
in his voice when he calls her name that shows he 
speaks from the heart. When she praises him there 
is a deprecating look, indicative of satisfaction at the 
wifely affection, but embarrassment that she should 
show such admiration. Mrs. McKinley looks upon 
her husband as the incarnation of all virtues. Her 
love, after twenty-five years of married life, is as of 
the honeymoon. 

INCIDENT OF EAELY LIFE, 

After concluding his study of the law with Judge 
Glidden, William McKinley moved to Canton, where 
he had been preceded by his sister, Anna, who was 
up to the time of her death the most successful and 



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PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 113 

popular school teacher in the public schools of that 
city of 38,000 people. Young McKinley stuck u 
shingle out from a back room of the then public 
building, a three-story brick structure which stood 
where the court-house now stands. McKiuley's 
room was to the rear of the law offices of Judge 
George W. Belden, who had served many years on 
the Common Pleas and Circuit bench, and was a 
leader in his profession in Ohio. One evening the 
Judge was sick. He stepped back to the office of 
his new young neighbor and asked him to try a case 
for him the very next morning. McKinley said he 
couldn't. He wasn't able. He didn't know enough. 
He was not familiar with the law in the case and 
there w^as no time to look it up. The Judge said he 
himself was sick and McKinley could try the case 
and must do it. McKinley sat up all night studying 
the law points and the next day argued the case and 
won it. As he was finishing his argument he 
noticed Judge Belden step into the court-room and 
take a rear seat. There was a twinkle in his eye. 
But McKinley did not see him again for a week. 
Then the Judge stepjDed into his humble office. He 
laid down twenty-five dollars, saying : " Well, Mac, 
you won the case ; I told you you would." 

" Yes, I won it, but I don't want any pay for it, 
and if I did, I couldn't take this much." 
''' You must take it," replied the Judge. 
" I couldn't take so much, Judge," responded the 
young lawyer 



114 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 

" But that's all right," rejoined the Judge ; " I get 
an even one hundred dollars from it, and keep the 
seventy-five dollars for myself And what is more, 
I want you for a j^artner." 

Young McKinley relented, and Belden & Mc- 
Kinley practiced together for several years, until 
Judge Belden died. They were one of the leading 
law firms of Eastern Ohio. 

GOVEKNOR Mckinley's money trouble. 

The fact is familiar that Governor McKinley had 
the misfortune to indorse paper for a friend, and lost 
so much money that he resolved to abandon public 
life to earn the sum so far as it was over and above 
his means. The story was told in the New York 
World, in explanation of some abusive remarks 
touching McKinley, in March last, when it was seen 
that lie was becoming very prominent in the Presi- 
dential contest. 

On February 17th, 1893, every dollar McKinley 
possessed was swept away, and he was overwhelmed 
with an indebtedness of between $90,000 and 
$100,000. It all came about through the failure of 
Kobert L. Walker, capitalist, banker, manufacturer, 
and boyhood companion of Governor McKinley. 

Mr. Walker lived in Youiigstown. He was Presi- 
dent of tlie Farmers' National Bank, the Girard 
Savings Bank, a stamping-mill company, a stove and 
range company, and interested in several coal mines 
in Western Ohio and Eastern Pennsylvania. Mr. 



PE1ISU.\AL SIDE OF McKINLEY Do 

Walker was a potent factor in the community, had 
the confidence of everybody, and was rated above 
$250,000. When young McKinley returned from 
the war and began the study of law and politics, 
Walker had helped him. When McKinley was 
elected to Congress he found the campaign expenses 
heavy, and a mortgage which was due on his wife's 
property, forced him to negotiate a loan of |2,000 
from Walker. 

This Major McKinley paid out of his "salary as 
Congressman within two years. It is probable that 
similar loans were made and paid afterwards. Mrs. 
McKinley was an invalid, and as Major McKinley's 
income was only $5,000 and an occasional legal fee he 
was never able to save anything. It was only during 
campaigns that he required these loans, and the 
money was expended in cam23aign assessments. 
When he had won fame in Congress he was no 
longer assessed anything, and in the last ten years 
of his life in Congress he was able to accumulate 
$20,000. It was invested in securities and real 
estate. These securities consisted of stock in 
various coal mines and undeveloped coal fields. The 
chief real estate item was the modest home in Can- 
ton. Early in 1893 Mr. Walker told Major McKin- 
ley that he was hard pressed for ready money. He 
asked the Governor to indorse his notes, which he 
proposed to have discounted. Without investigating 
or inquiring into the matter Major McKinley in- 
stantly consented. He only knew that his old friend, 



IIG PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 

the man who stood by him in early years, wanted 
assistance, and anything he conkl do to help him he 
cheerfully did. The notes were made payable in 
thirty, sixty, and ninety days, and Major McKinley 
indorsed, as he supposed, about 1 15,000 worth. They 
were discounted as Walker planned and Major 
McKinley thought no more of the matter until Feb- 
ruary 17th, 1893. 

On that date Youngstown and Mahoning Valley 
was startled by the assignment of Robert L. Walker. 
A judgment of |12,000 against the Youngstown 
Stamping Company caused the f^iilure. The stove 
company, the coal mines and the other enterprises 
went downi the next day. Then the banks which 
held the Walker paper began to figure. Major 
McKinley was leaving his home to go to the banquet 
of the Ohio Society in New York when he was in- 
formed of the disaster. He cancelled his New York 
engagement and took the first train to Youngstown. 

There he learued that instead of being on the 
Walker paper for $15,000, his liability in that 
direction was nearly $100,000. He could not under- 
stand it. Banks all over the State telegraphed him 
they had some of the paper. He was under the 
impression the paper had been discounted in but 
three banks. He held a conference with his friends. 
He told them he had endorsed a number of notes, 
but he understood that fully half of them were 
made out to take up notes which he had first endorsed 
and which had fallen due. 



PERSONAL SIDI^] OF McKlNLEY 117 

A little investigation showed that the old notes 
were still nnpaid and the new notes had doubled, 
trebled, quintupled the debt. The Walker liabili- 
ties were about i|200,000 and the assets not half that 
sum. 

After the conference with his Youngstown friends 
Major McKinley said : " I can hardly believe this, 
but it appears to be true. I don't know what my 
liabilities are, but whatever I owe shall be paid dol- 
lar for dollar." 

McKinley was not interested in any of Walker's 
business enterprises. The connection was simply 
one of friendship. 

• Mrs. McKinley owned proiDcrty valued at |75,000, 
left her by her father. On February 22d the Gov- 
ernor and his wife made an absolute and unqualified 
assignment of all their property to trustees — H. H. 
Kohlsaat, of Chicago; Myron T. Herrick, of Cleve- 
land, and Judge Day, of Canton, Ohio — to be turned 
over, without j^reference, for the equal benefit of the 
creditors. 

Friends urged Mrs. McKinley to retain an inter- 
est in her property, but she refused, and executed a 
deed to M. A. Hanna, of Cleveland. At this time 
Major McKinley said : " I did what I could to help 
a friend who had befriended me. The result is 
known. I had no interest in any of the enterprises 
Mr. AValker was carrying. The amount of my in- 
dorsements is in excess of anything I dreamed. 
There is but one thing for me to do — one thing I 



118 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 

would do — meet this unlooked-for burden as best I 
can. I have this day placed all my pro23erty in the 
hands of trustees, to be used to pay my debts. It 
will be insufficient, but I will execute notes and pay 
them as fast as I can'. I shall retire from politics, 
take up the practice of law, and begin all over again." 

The news of the disaster, and the stand taken by 
McKinley and his wife, created a feeling of sympathy 
throughout the country. The Chicago Inter-Ocean 
started a popular fund, and money and offers -of 
assistance began to pour in. 

McKinley returned the money to the contributors, 
thanking them for their interest, but refused to accept 
a dollar. 

Finally a number of personal friends of the Gov- 
ernor, M. A. Hann:i, of Cleveland ; Philo Armour, 
Marshal Field, and H. H. Kohlsaat, of Chicago ; 
Bellamy Storer and Thomas McDougall, of Cincin- 
nati ; Myron T. llerrick, of Cleveland, and others, 
decided to subscribe privately to a fund to pay the 
Walker notes. 

Mr. Kohlsaat, who managed the fund, said to The 
World correspondent: "One of the chief reasons 
why the subscription plan was adopted was because 
a number of subscrij^tions were received anonymously 
and could not be returned. There were over 4,000 
subscriptions sent in, and when the last piece of paper 
was taken up, bearing Major McKinley's name, no 
more subscriptions were received and some were 
returned. No list of the subscribers was kept, and 



PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY no 

Governor McKiiiley does not know to this day, with 
the possible exception of four or five names, who 
contributed the money. 

" When Governor McKinley saw the publication 
of the subscription scheme he wrote me absolutely 
declining to receive a dollar. Mr. Hanna and his 
other friends told him to leave the matter alone, for 
if his friends wished to assist him they should have 
the privilege." 

Myron T. Herrick, of Cleveland, was treasurer of 
the fund and took up the paper as fast as presented. 
Mrs. McKinley's property was then deeded back 
to her. She is worth to-day probably |75,000. 
McKinley has his original $20,000 and a "little more. 
He saved nothing, it is said, during his second term 
as Governor. 

The matter lias been referred to as showing a lack 
of business ability on the part of Governor McKinley. 
This is hardly justified. George Tod, whose busi- 
ness ability will not be questioned, says he would have 
endorsed Robert Walker's paper for half a million 
dollars the day before his failure. Such being his 
standing and such the close personal relations between 
the two men it is not strange that McKinley endorsed 
for Walker to a large amount. 

This is a perfectly straight story. Major McKinley 
and his wife were good for tlie money, and resolved 
to pay all the obligations and returned the first sub- 
scriptions ; but the final arrangoiient to take up Mc- 
Kinley's paj^er as fast as presented was so organized 



/^- 



120 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 

he was constrained to submit to its execution. The 
whole transaction was one of undue confidence in the 
business ability, integrity, and standing of a friend, 
and the initiation of it was in the payment of a debt 
of gratitude. It is a chapter in the career of a man 
who has given his labor for the general benefit, 
paying scant attention to personal interests; and the 
fact that Governor McKinley was saved for the public 
service is most creditable to the gentlemen who are 
responsible for the adjustment, and the action of the 
Governor himself was in every detail of his contact 
with it that of a man of absolute probity. 



CHAPTER VI. 

McKINLEY NOT A MAN OF ONE IDEA. 

His superior distinction as a protectionist has caused him to be erro- 
neously accused of exclusive devotion to that subject — The 
great range of his public speeches and addresses — A superb 
tribute from General Grosvenor, giving a list of subjects. 

THE reputation of Major McKinley as the fore- 
most champion of the American system of 
protection has for some years been familiar 
to all civilized people. He represents the American 
idea, and is as prominently in the eye of the public 
in England, France, Germany, and Austria as in his 
own country, and is in Sj)ain, Italy, Sweden, and 
Russia a man of mark in all business communities, 
and of immense conspicuity in all commercial circles 
and manufacturing towns ; and so far as the Asiatics 
are interested in the affairs European and American, 
they are informed of McKinley as the man who 
stands for the principle that the Americans should 
diversify their industries and aid home markets with 
home manufactories, mingling producers and con- 
sumers on the same soil, aiding the farmers by divert- 
ing labor to other occuioations than agricultural, and 



/>. 



132 McKIN^LEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 

causing competition among our own manufacturers 
in our own markets, by protecting them from foreign 
intrusion upon conditions unfavorable to our higher 
and broader interests. There is a curious bitterness 
of personal hostility abroad to Major McKinley. Ii\ 
some of the manufacturing districts of Germany, 
McKinley is regarded as a public enemy — almost a 
monster. American children in German schools have 
been astonished, offended, and mortified by these mani- 
festations of feeling, and of one thing Americans can 
be sure, and it is that those who make a virtue in 
England or the Continental countries of Europe, of 
being hostile to McKinley, are not animated by ap- 
prehensions that his policy is injurious to the people 
of the United States. They hold that he is disposed 
to build up his own country at the expense of Eurojoe; 
that his statesmanship is American, but not cosmo- 
politan, and that is not an unreasonable conclusion. 
It was the earliest fame of McKinley in Congress 
and as a Republican politician on the stump that he 
made his protection speeches intensely interesting, 
and that no one else did so with the same certainty 
and efficacy ; and it was out of this that the unwar- 
ranted impression grew that the discussion of the 
tariff was his sole specialty. In truth no one had a 
greater range of subjects. Born in a manufacturing 
town — in his youth up to the time he became a boy 
soldier, seventeen years of age — one of those in- 
tently interested in the prosperity of the manufactur- 
ing industries that demanded the protection that was 



McKIXLEY XOT OF ONE IDEA 123 

declared in the first law passed by tlie American 
Congress, McKinley was a student of this great 
matter from infancy, and the facts and sentiments 
of the manufacturing people were for him in the air 
he breathed ; and he saw and felt the advancing 
importance of the issues of protection because the 
world was at last so small that the nations over the 
sea were our neighbors. Liverpool was, in Henry 
Clay's time, further from American ports, than Can- 
ton and Melbourne now are, and the manufacturing 
districts of England are closer to us, in time and 
cost of transportation, than Connecticut was at the 
beginning of the War of States. The same thing 
may be said of Germany and Massachusetts. 

McKinley grew up with the question and was its 
master long before he was its expounder fronting the 
world, and its champion at home. He is popular 
here for the same reason that he is unpopular 
abroad. His name has swept the country as a Presi- 
dential candidate, because of its unquestionable and 
unexampled significance. The meaning of it is plain 
to the people, and what it means they want. He 
has friends who have been ardent and able organ- 
izers and workers — but they have only handled the 
material that was abundant and seasoned. The fire 
was not kindled in green wood — with laborious pains. 
The woods were ready to burn and the wind was 
fair. The people have done this thing themselves 
and they will see it through. They are dissatisfied 
with the free-trade experiments of Mr. Cleveland. 






134 McKINLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 

The Democratic threats to throw down the defenses 
of American industry were themselves disastrous — 
and the weariness of uncertainty became an intoler- 
able misfortune — and the tariff that was neither for 
protection nor revenue was a blow that seemed, under 
the circumstances, so unprincipled and wanton, the 
people resented it as damaging without excuse and 
insolent without provocation. The Hon. Charles H. 
Grosvenor, one of the Ohio men who has served 
long with McKinley in Congress and knew him 
intimately in personal and public life, has contrib- 
uted an excellent character sketch of his friend 
notable for its firmness and accuracy of touch, and 
breadth and clearness of view, and that has been 
exceedingly serviceable in making known the variety 
of the political life of the man who has been so heed- 
lessly criticised as a statesman with one idea and one 
speech. General Grosvenor says : 

" Governor McKinley is a man of most attractive 
personality. He was born and reared from child- 
hood to manhood among the peoi^le of the country. 
He learned in the school from which so many 
graduates have risen to distinction in the United 
States — the school of adversity and personal en- 
deavor. 

" He is now fifty-two years of age, in the very 
prime of a splendid physical and mental manhood. 
He is not only vigorous mentally and strong from 
every possible standpoint of manhood, but is con- 
stantly growing and developing, and it may be said 
7 



McKTNLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 125 

of him with perfect propriety that he has never 
occupied a position in private or public life where he 
did not fill to the fullest measure all the expectations 
of his friends and constituents. Whether as a soldier 
in the field — young, radiant with patriotism, buoyant 
with impassion — or as a young lawyer entering upon 
the noble profession of his choice, as a Congress- 
man representing the great interests of his district 
and State, or as the executive of the great State of 
Ohio, he has, under all circumstances, risen to the 
full measure of the opportunity and discharged every 
duty and every trust v/ith unwavering zeal and pre- 
eminent success. 

" He has been an ardent student of politics. He 
left a prosperous and growing professional business, 
and a flattering career just opening before him, and 
entered the field of politics — a young man full of 
enthusiasm as a Republican. He has always been 
faithful to party duty, and while maintaining his 
own integrity of conscience, and while criticising 
party platforms and party movements at times, yet 
no one is truer to party obligation and party fealty 
than he. Kindly considerate of his opjionent, always 
bearing testimony of the good faith of those of other 
political organizations, he, nevertheless, stands firmly 
and vigorously for the tenets of his own party. He 
is a Republican from honest conviction, and does 
battle for Republican organization and Republican 
victory from a sense of public duty. 

" His intense Americanism has had much to do 



136 McKINLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 

beyond special matters of political conteution. Be- 
lieving that this country is and should be for the 
homes and interests of the American j^eople, he 
advocates the principles that, in his judgment, best 
subserve that result. 

" By intense Americanism it must not be supposed 
that he confines tlie definition of Americanism to the 
men and principles exclusively of American birth. 
He does now and always has recognized this country 
as not only the home of American-born, but also of 
the truly valuable citizens of other countries who 
come here and renounce their citizenship and all 
foreign joowers, and fully assimilate the principles 
of our government and become loyal to the Constitu- 
tion, and industrial and faithful citizens of the United 
States. 

" During Governor McKinley's long service in Con- 
gress he gave special attention to the subject of the 
tariff, and as a member of the Ways and Means 
Committee devoted much of his time to revenue 
legislation ; but it must not be understood that Gov- 
ernor McKinley is a man of j)Ower and a man of 
knowledge upon a single subject. It has been said 
of him incidentally that he is a statesman upon a 
single question and a man of learning with a single 
idea. No greater error could possibly be suggested. 

" Since the expiration of his term in Congress and 
during his four years in the administration as Gov- 
ernor of Ohio, he has delivered addresses upon a 
great variety of questions, and discussed a large 



McKINLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 137 

number of subjects, all outside of his specialty in 
national politics. He has made many notable 
speeches upon questions wholly independent and 
differing from mere political considerations. Among 
the notable speeches wliicli he made in Congress 
other than upon the tariff question were : upon the 
contest against Judge Taylor in the Forty-fourth 
Congress ; the subject of free and fair elections in 
the same Congress ; a memorial address on the deatli 
of Garfield ; payment of jDensions in the Forty- 
ninth Congress ; the Dependent Pension bill in the 
same Congress ; the purchase of government bonds 
in the Fiftieth Congress ; memorial address on the 
death of John A. Logan ; the question of a quorum 
in the Fifty-first Congress ; civil service reform in 
the Fifty-first Congress ; the Direct Tax Refunding 
bill ; the Hawaiian Treaty ; the Eight-hour law, 
and the Silver bill. These speeches, which are of 
the highest order of excellence, covered a wide range 
of subjects. 

" Outside of Congress his speeches and public utter- 
ances have covered a still wider range. Among those 
that might be noted as of special interest are his 
address, at Atlanta, Ga., before the Piedmont Chau- 
tauqua Association ; the ' American Volunteer Sol- 
dier,' Memorial Day address, at New York City ; 

* Prospect and Retrospect,' an address to the pio- 
neers of the Mahoning Valley; 'The American 
Farmer,' an address before the Ohio State Grange ; 

* Our Public Schools,' an address at the dedication 



^H. 



138 McKl^LEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 

of a public school building ; ' New England and the 
Future/ an address before the Pennsylvania New 
England Society ; * The Tribune's Jubilee,' an 
address at the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of 
the New York Tribune ; ' Pensions and the Public 
Debt,' a Memorial Day address at Canton, Ohio ; 
* No Compromise with the Demagogue,' at thet)hio 
Kepublican State Convention of 1891 ; a Fourth of 
July address, at Woodstock, Conn.; 'The American 
Workingman,' a Labor Day address at Cincinnati ; 
the ' State of Ohio,' an address before the Ohio 
State Republican League ; ' Oberlin College,' an ad- 
dress before the Cleveland Alumni ; ' Issues make 
Parties,' an address to the Republican College 
Clubs at Ann Arbor, Mich.; his notification address 
to Mr. Harrison ; a Fourth of July oration at Lake- 
side ; *The Triumphs of Protection,' an address 
before the Chautauqua Association, at Beatrice, 
Neb.; ' An Auxiliary to Religion,' an address at the 
dedication of the Young Men's Christian Association 
at Youngstown, Ohio; an oration at the dedication 
of the Ohio Building at the World's Fair at Chicago; 
a memorial address upon the life and character of 
Rutherford B. Hayes ; a speech at Minneapolis upon 
questions of national import ; an address on Wash- 
ington before the Union League Club, of Chicago, 
February 22d, 1893 ; an address to the students of 
the Northwestern University at Chicago on * Citizen- 
ship and Education;' 'Law, Labor, and Liberty,' 
a Fourth of July oration before the labor organiza- 



McKINLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 131 

tions of Chicago; addresses before the National 
Jewish Association at Cleveland ; before the National 
Ssengerfest at Cleveland ; Grant memorial address at 
New York ; an address at the dedication of the Grant 
monument at Galena, 111. ; an address before the Ep- 
worth League of the United States at Cleveland ; an 
address before the Christian Endeavorers of the Bap- 
tist Union, and before the Christian Endeavor Asso- 
ciation of the United Presbyterian Church at Colum- 
bus ; an address to the Lutheran Synod at Columbus ; 
an address at Albany, N. Y., on Abraham Lincoln ; 
an address before the Chamber of Commerce at 
Rochester, N. Y., on ' Business and Politics ;' before 
the State (Ohio) Chamber of Commerce on * Busi- 
ness and Citizenship ;' before the German Veterans 
of the United States, at Columbus ; a Memorial Day 
address at Indianapolis; an address before the Grand 
Army of the Republic at Pittsburg, and most notably, 
his splendid oration at the dedication of Chickamauga 
and Chattanooga Park, and at the Atlanta Exposi- 
tion his speech upon * Blue and Gray.' 

"A careful perusal of these speeches, orations, and 
addresses will show that Governor McKinley, while 
an absolute master of all that relates to the tariff and 
all phases of governmental revenue, has yet distin- 
guished himself in these other fields of oratory by 
the same thoroughness of knowledge and the same 
beauty of oratorical effect. His oratory is of the 
choicest character ; phrases and sentences come trip- 
ping and bubbling forth from him apparently with- 



133 McKINLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 

out preparation, a23parently without effort, forming 
the most beautiful constellations of oratorical effect 
and oratorical beauty. 

"It is not an exaggerated statement to say that 
Governor McKinley has made addresses, orations, 
and sj^eeches of the very highest order, judged from 
the point of view of oratory and of thorough knowl- 
edge of the subjects, upon a more diversified line 
of subjects than can be justly attributed to many 
Americans of to-day. Indeed, we are at a loss to 
recall at this moment any one who has exhibited in 
this country a wider range of subjects with a more 
perfect handling of the same. He has addressed 
more people in the United States upon the various 
topics upon which he has spoken by far than any 
other living man, and he has been seen by a greater 
number of the people of the United States than any 
other man now living. 

" He is personally exceedingly popular among the 
masses of the people. It is safe to say that since the 
untimely death of James G. Blaine no American 
citizen has drawn to public gatherings anything like 
the number of men that have flocked to hear Governor 
McKinley. In the campaign of 1894 he traveled and 
spoke from platforms and Pullman cars in nearly all 
the States of the Nation where political contests were 
raging, and whether in the great Republican State of 
Ohio, or in the close and doubtful State of Missouri, 
or in the great crowds which met him in New Orleans, 
his audiences were absolutely unparalleled. 



McKlNLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 133 

" His nearness to the people, his closeness to the 
very sympathies and hearts of the masses of the 
American people, has not been excelled by the 
experience of any American, within the memory of 
man. He has had experience in high executive 
office. For four years he has served as Governor 
of the great State of Ohio. During that time many 
events and some serious disturbances have happened 
in the State which brought out his strong and com- 
manding executive force." 

The space at command will not permit the repro- 
duction of the great mass of public utterances by 
Governor McKinley, but we propose to 25resent 
enough passages, selected with the view of prefer- 
ring that which is characteristic and that together 
will testify the seriousness and searching studies with 
which he has made himself familiar with a range of 
topics equal in scope to those that have received the 
attention of his age and country, and we devote the 
chapters immediately succeeding this to the addresses 
in which he has discussed affairs in his characteristic 
style, showing the wide field of thought with which 
he is familiar, and in the treatment of which he dis- 
plays the energy, sincerity, and scholarship that he 
devotes to the service of the people. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Mckinley on civic patriotism. 

Address at Rochester, N. Y. — Studying conditions of government — 
Public opinion the basis — Zeal after election— The people's 
business — Duty of business men — Manufacturing interests — 
Our best market — An extraordinary spectacle. 

VERY rarely has there been a more powerful 
statement of the obligations and importance 
of civic patriotism than that by Governor 
McKinley, at Rochester, N. Y., before the Chamber 
of Commerce of that city. It is the more forcible 
because it is in the simjDlest business language — and 
the direct association of good citizenship with good 
business is remarkable and impressive. 

CIVIC PATRIOTISM. 
GovEENOB McKinley at Rochester, N. Y., Feb. 13th, 1895. 

" Me. President and Gentlemen of the Chamber 

OF Commerce : 

" I cannot forego making grateful acknowledg" 

ment of the honor of the invitation of the Chamber 

of Commerce of the city of Rochester which brings 

134 



McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 135 

me here to-night. It would have been more agree- 
able to me to have been a silent guest at your table, 
freed from the responsibility of making an address. 

" These are times when the wisest words are wanted 
and the careless should be unspoken. I wish more 
than ever in my life for the power to speak the words 
which, at a crisis like the present, are so much 
needed. The people throughout the country are at 
this moment giving more sober consideration to the 
duties of citizenship than probably at any previous 
period. They are studying conditions in national, 
State, and city governments. They are reflecting 
upon their responsibility and power in relation to 
these conditions, having uppermost in mind the pos- 
sibility to improve them. 

" ' What can we do to better them ?' is the inquiry 
engaging every thoughtful mind, and which comes 
almost unbidden from every tongue. The power, as 
well as the responsibility, the people are beginning 
to realize, rests with them. Their duty they want 
to know, and knowing it, they are ready to do it. 

" Our government, National, State, and Municipal, 
rests upon public opinion. Public opinion creates 
free governments, and upholds them for good or for 
ill. Public opinion, however good, if indifferent, has 
no vital force. When aroused, it may check an evil 
in public administration, but the evil will resume its 
sway the moment the public sentiment which arrested 
it lapses into indifference. Public opinion, to secure 
real reforms and hold them, must not be fitful and 



136 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 

spasmodic ; it must be vigorouSj vigilant, steady, and 
constant, and as sleepless in its activity as the enemy 
of right is known always to be. Swift as public 
judgment sometimes is, and justly is, in tlie condem- 
nation of public officials and public policies, some- 
thing more than this is required. Execution of the 
public will must follow the public judgment. And 
this is only possible when the same public is alert 
and determined that its judgment shall not be a cold 
formality, but a living fact, to be respected and en- 
forced. 

" Zeal after an election is quite as essential as before. 
The cause which was successful at the polls demands 
constant zeal for its practical realization. The best 
agents of the popular will are made better by the in- 
cessant watchfulness of their princiiDals. Not watch- 
fulness alone, but support, reinforcement, and en- 
couragement are necessary. The battle is only begun 
when the first line of intrenchments is taken. The 
army is quite as necessary in the engagements which 
are to follow. The election only determines public 
policy. It has then to be carried out. It requires 
the people co-operating continuously with the public 
officers to put into the forms of law and administra- 
tion their declared purpose. The election settles 
much or little dependent upon how the election de- 
crees are interpreted and executed. The election 
only declares the people's purpose. After this 
must come the fulfillment, for the promises of the 
©lection should always be sacredly kept. Here comes 



McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 137 

* the tug of war.' Then is not the time for relaxa- 
tion on the part of the citizen, but for renewed and 
redoubled effort and vigilance. If then the people 
become indifferent, you may be sure the public officer, 
however strong and true and well meaning, will be 
inadequate for the task. The official is quick to 
catch the spirit of the people. 

" Lincoln said, as he journeyed to Washington in 
1861, in response to the address of welcome by Gov- 
ernor Morton, of Indiana, at the city of Indianapolis : 
" * In all the trying places in which I may be 
placed, and doubtless I will be placed in many such, 
my reliance will be upon you, the people of the 
United States, and I wish you to remember now and 
forever that it is your business, not mine alone.' 

" No truth Avas ever more manifest or more sig- 
nificant, then and now, than that uttered by Mr. 
Lincoln. 

" Government of the people is the people's busi- 
ness, and if they neglect it, government and people 
both suffer. The duty of the citizen does not end 
when the polls are closed on election day. He has, 
by the act of voting, performed an important duty, 
but the 364 days of the year remaining 6ach has its 
own distinct duty, sometimes quite as important as 
the one on election day. 

"Interest in public affairs. National, State, and 
city, should be ever present and active, and not 
abated from one year's end to the other. No Ameri- 
can citizen is too great ajid none too humble to be 



138 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATEIOTISM 

exempt from any civic duty, however subordinate. 
Every public duty is honorable. 

" If the best citizens will not unite to serve the 
State or city, the worst may and generally will be 
in control. There is in every State and city a 
majority in favor of the best government, and when 
they fail to secure it, it is because the majority is 
indifferent and without unity of purpose and action. 
Business men cannot, with safety, stand aloof from 
political duties. Their success or failure in their 
own enterprises is often involved in good or bad 
government. The great danger to the country is 
iudifferentism. 

" This menace often comes from the busy man or 
man of business, and sometimes from those possess- 
ing the most leisure or learning. I have known men 
engaged in great commercial enterprises to leave 
home on the eve of an election, and then complain of 
the result, when their presence and the good influence 
they might properly have exerted would have secured 
a different and better result. They run away from 
one of the most sacred obligations in a government 
like ours, and confide to those with less interest 
involved and less responsibility to the community, 
the duty which should be shared by them. What 
we need is a revival of the true spirit of popular 
government, the true American spirit where all — not 
the few — participate actively in government. We 
need a new baptism of patriotism ; and suppressing 
for the time our several religious views upon the 



McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 139 

subject, I thiDk we will all agree that the baptism 
should be by immersion. There cannot be too much 
patriotism. It banishes distrust and treason, and 
anarchy flees before it. It is a sentiment which 
enriches our individual and National life. It is the 
firmament of our power, the security of the Republic, 
the bulwark of our liberties. It makes better citizens, 
better cities, a better country, and a better civilization. 
" The business life of the country is so closely con- 
nected with its political life that the one is much 
influenced by the other. Good politics is good 
business. Mere partisanship) no longer controls the 
citizen and country. Men who think alike, although 
heretofore acting jealously apart, are now acting 
together, and no longer p)ermit former party associ- 
ations to keep them from co-operating for the public 
good. They are more and more growing into the 
habit of doing in politics what they do in business. 
Strong as the party tie may be, it is not so strong 
as the business tie. Men would rather break with 
their party than break up their business. They 
prefer individual and National j^rosperity to party 
supremacy, and a clean public service to party 
spoils. The business man cannot stand aloof from 
public afiairs without prejudice to his own business 
and without neglecting the grave duties which he 
owes the State. Wholesome political activity in the 
business world is promotive of the general good. 
Interest in public affairs by spurts is probably better 
than no interest at all, but the steady, uninterrupted, 



140 MeKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 

every-clay interest is the crying need of the hour 
and the only path of safety. The best results in free 
government can be had in no other way. 

" You cannot hope to improve public aifairs by 
withholding your own good offices. If you would 
clear and purify the atmosi3here of our political life, 
you must lend your own energy and virtue and 
intelligence and honesty to do it. 

" The business men of the country have devolving 
upon them a grave responsibility. It is no easy task 
to keep the mighty wheels of industry in operation. 
Idle wheels mean idle men and idle capital. Both 
draw upon their accumulations, and each is unprofit- 
able when the other is unemployed. Think of the 
vast capital invested in manufactures in this country, 
and what skill and watchfulness are required to 
keep it at work ! The manufactures of the United 
States in 1890, engaged $2,900,735,884 of capital, 
and the value of the output was $4,860,286,837. 
The making of these products furnished steady and 
remunerative occupation to 2,251,134 persons ; and 
the stupendous sum of $1,221,170,454 poured into 
the then happy and prosperous homes of the Ameri- 
can workingmen — nearly four millions of dollars 
for each working-day, and nearly one-half million 
dollars for every working-hour of every working-day 
of the year 1890. Our manufactures have made 
steady advance from 1865 to 1892 ; nearly one million 
more persons were employed in the year 1890 than 
in 1880, and more were employed in 1892 than had 



McKT?^LEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 141 

ever been employed in any previous year in our his- 
tory, and more, it is needless to say, than have been 
employed since ; and the wages paid in 1890 were 
more than double the amount paid in 1880. The 
value of our manufacturing products in 1890 was 
more than 100 i)er cent, greater than in 1880. I do 
not think even the business men of this country aj)- 
preciate — I am sure that the people at large do not 
appreciate — the full magnitude of the manufacturing 
interests of the United States, and the wealth which 
agriculture and manufactures and labor working 
together have made for the Republic. Our wealth 
in 1890 was |6 1,469,000,000. In 1880 it was 
$43,642,000,000. From 1870 to 1890 it increased 
$31,391,000,000, or almost twice the entire wealth 
of the Empire of Russia. Take Great Britain, the 
richest nation in the okl world, with the accumula- 
tions of centuries, and our wealth exceeds her's in 
1880 by $276,000,000. 

" In 1880 our wealth was 23.93 per cent, of the 
wealth of all Europe. Our earnings were 28.01 per 
cent, of those of Europe, and our increase of wealth 
was 49.28 per cent, of European increase. From 
1870 to 1880 the per capita of wealth of Europe 
decreased nearly 3 per cent., while in the United 
States there was an increase of nearly 39 per cent. 
The freight that passed through the St. Mary's 
Falls Canal in 1890 exceeded by 2,257,876 tons 
the entire tonnage of all the nations which j)assed 
through the Suez Canal in 1889. Our home mar- 



142 McKIXLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 

xets have consumed heretofore five times as much 
of our manufactured products as Great Britain ex- 
ported of hers to all the markets of the world. Our 
products are carried to our own people and dis- 
tributed among them with greater facility - and at 
cheaper rates, taking into account distance, than 
products are carried in any other country in the 
world. 

" How are we to get back what we have lost ? 
How is the vast capital now invested in manufac- 
tures to be preserved and made profitable ? Only 
by keeping it busy and constantly at work. Capital 
scorns idleness ; it loves work if for no other reason 
than that it loves gain. Capital in manufactories 
which are shut down is not like money on deposit 
subject to call, or in the strong box hoarded away, 
which, while it earns nothing, keeps the principal 
sum intact and unimpaired. The closed mill depreci- 
ates the value of machinery and buildings and land 
and everything connected with it, and it is ever 
wearing away the cajjital invested in it. This is 
followed by impoverishment to the owners, injury 
to the community in which it is located, and desti- 
tution to those who have been employed. 

" Every business man would, therefore, rather run 
his factory than close it, because he wants his invest- 
ment to earn him something. When closed, his 
capital, so far as any immediate profit is to come, is 
stopped. It is with him a question whether he can 
run with as little loss as he can stop. If he can, he 



McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 143 

will always run. If lie cannot, he is bound to stop. 
He cannot run at all if there is no demand for his 
product. Production requires consumption. Mar- 
kets are inseparable from manufactures. The manu- 
facturer must have a market; he wants the best 
market if he can get it, and he has come to learn 
where it is and how to get it. He knows, as he 
never knew before, how he lost it, and he knows how 
to regain it. We know, and we do not know it any 
better than our competitors in foreign lands, that 
the American market — our home market — is the 
best of all. We not only want to keep our home 
market, but we want a foreign market for our sur- 
plus products of manufacture and agriculture. We 
do not want it, however, at the loss of our home 
market. I am sure we do not want it when it 
shall involve the idleness and destitution and degra- 
dation of our own labor. We want not only to send 
our products abroad, but we want them to go abroad 
in our own vessels, sailing under our own flag. We 
should not depend upon bur commercial rivals for 
the means of reaching comjDctitive markets. We 
can well supply, and, for the general good, furnish 
our own transportation to foreign ports with fair 
encouragement, and it should not be withheld. 
Many markets of the world are open to us if we 
could reach them directly without trans-shipment, 
with our own ships. 

" The general situation of the country demands of 
the business men, as well as the masses of the 



144 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATEIOTISM 

people, the most serious consideration. We must 
have less partisanshi]) of a certain kind, more 
business, and a better National spirit. We need 
an aggressive partisanship for country. There are 
some things upon which we are all agreed. We 
must have enough money to run the government. 
We must not have our credit tarnished and our 
reserve depleted because of pride of opinion, or to 
carry out some economic theory unsuited to our 
conditions, citizenship, and civilization. The out- 
flow of gold will not disturb us if the inflow of gold 
is large enough. The outgo is not serious if the 
income exceeds it. False theories should not be 
permitted to stand in the way of cold facts. The 
resources which have been developed, and the wealth 
which has been accumulated in the last third of a 
century in the United States, must not be impaired 
or diminished or wasted by the application of theo- 
ries of the dreamer or doctrinaire. Business expe- 
rience is the best lamp to guide us in the pathway of 
progress and prosperity. 

" What a spectacle to behold ! A government, 
which, in thirty-three years, has passed through the 
mightiest war in human history, which created a 
debt to save the Union ; that seemed most appall- 
ing at the time which, since that time, has paid o& 
more than two-thirds of that great war debt, and 
which, in the three years preceding 1893, paid ofl" 
nearly $300,000,000 of it from the income of the 
treasury and its surjDlus, which from 1865 has en- 



McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 145 

joyed a financial credit witliout a parallel in the 
world's history, to-day is without sujfficieut money 
from its own receipts to pay the ordinary expenses, 
and with a credit, ujDon the authority of the highest 
officers of the government, is threatened with im- 
pairment. We cannot longer close our eyes to the 
situation which affects every home and hearthstone 
and the government itself. We cannot afford to 
quarrel over the past ; nor is it profitable to indulge 
in inquiries as to where the responsibility of the con- 
dition rests. It is enough for us to know it is here 
and upon us. Whatever differences we may have 
had, we must all agree now that the situation is one 
that requires the highest sagacity in statesmanship, 
and the broadest patriotism in citizenship. Let us, 
first of all, keep without stain and above suspicion 
the credit of our country, which is too sacred ever to 
be neglected. Let us provide somehow, and in some 
sensible, practical way, for the collection of enough 
money annually to pay all our current expenses, in- 
terest on the public debt, pensions to soldiers, and 
every other governmental obligation. Until that is 
done, if we have to borroAV money, that should be 
done, and the sooner the better, but this will be only 
a temporary cure and provision. That must be sup- 
plemented by legislation that will raise in the taxes 
and tariffs a steady income, full and ample for every 
government need. The way to stop loans is to stop 
deficiencies. The reserve is sure to be drained if 
you cut off the supply. I agree with the President 



146 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 

that a ' predicament ' confronts us, and I am sure 
tliere is wisdom and patriotism ample in the country 
to relieve ourselves from that ' predicament ' or any 
other, and to place us once more at the head of the 
nations of the world in credit, production, and pros- 
perity." 

[American Israelite-Jewish Orphan Asylum, July 15th, 1893.] 
EARLY EDUCATION AND THE JEWISH RACE. 

" When we get out into the busy world with its 
duties and responsibilities we have little time for the 
acquisition of more than practical knowledge. 

" It is so often a question of mere sustenance, with 
little time for earnest study, much less for mental 
labor. And if the opportunities present at an insti- 
tution of this character are not improved they are 
lost to us forever. I enjoin upon you all to make 
the best use of the great opportunities you enjoy, and 
in after life you will find how much you have gained 
and how much embarrassment and blundering you 
will save yourself. 

"The young men and young women who succeed 
nowadays must succeed because of superior knowl- 
edge. This is an age of exactness. What you know 
you must know well and thoroughly, and to reach 
prominence you must know it better than anybody 
else. It will not do to know a thing half any longer. 
You must know it all, and the man who knows a few 
things — worthy things, I mean, in science or art or 




HON. JOHN SHERMAN. 



McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 149 

mechanics or business — better than those around him 
is the man who will succeed. 

" And the only way to acquire knowledge is to 
labor. There is no substitute for it. The best time 
to get it is when you are young. Proxies are not 
recognized, either in the intellectual or business con- 
flicts of the present day. To use a homely but 
expressive phrase, ' You must hoe your own row.' 

" Don't try to master too many things. A few 
things of which you are thoroughly master give you 
better equipment for life's struggles than a whole 
arsenal of half-mastered and half-matured things. 
You belong to a great race and a great age, and you 
are citizens of the greatest country on the face of the 
earth. Every opportunity is open to you as it is to 
me, and to every citizen, as they have never been 
opened in any other quarter of the globe. Here is 
absolute equality of opportunity and of advantage, 
and those who can win must do so by force and their 
own merit ; and here what you win you can wear. 

The Jewish people have for centuries been con- 
spicuous in almost every department of life. In 
music they have taken the highest rank as com- 
posers and performers. Mendelssohn, Rubenstein, 
and Joachim have few equals. As actors they had 
Rachael and Bernhardt and a long list beside, who 
have been recognized as stars the world over. 
Among the philosophers is to be named the great 
Spinoza ; in medicine, Franke ; in Greek literature, 
Bernays; while Benfrey was the first of Sanucrit 



150 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 

scholars ; Ricardo, conspicuous in political economy, 
and Sir Moses Montefiore, the great philanthropist, 
who died full of honors, a century old, whose memory 
is cherished the world over. His intellectual and 
physical faculties were marvelous. He retained his 
mental faculties until the last. After he was eighty 
years old, in the interest of his race and humanity, 
he made four great journeys ; two to Jerusalem, one 
to Roumania, and one to Russia. He was always 
doing good. 

" I observe from your souvenir that here in this in- 
stitution you sacredly observe his memory. He was 
broad-minded, not bigoted, loving his race and be- 
lieving in it, and yet helping Gentile as well as Jew. 
He contributed to build Protestant churches and 
found hospitals for the Turk and the Catholic, and 
assisted in every way to the elevation of all races and 
all colors of men. George Eliot, writing a few years 
ago about the Jewish race, and, as indicating the 
rank they had already taken, said : * At this moment 
the leader of the Liberal party in Germany is a Jew ; 
the leader of the Republican party in France is a 
Jew, and the leader of the Conservative party in 
England is a Jew.' Our own country can furnish a 
long list of useful and conspicuous men of your race 
— merchants and bankers, j)hilanthropists and 
patriots, physicians and lawyers, authors and orators 
and editors, teachers and preachers — all of them 
furnishing the young people of this Jewish orphan 
asylum worthy models to excite their ambition to 
become worthy successors^ 



MgKINLEY on civic patriotism 151 

THE CHARACTER AND TRAINING OF ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN. 

[February 12th, 1895, at Albany, N. Y.] 

"We meet to-night to do honor to one whose 
achievements have heightened human aspirations 
and broadened the field of opportunity to the races 
of men. While the party with which we stand, and 
for which he stood, can justly claim him, and with- 
out dispute can boast the distinction of being the first 
to honor and trust him, his fame has leaped the 
bounds of party and country, and now belongs to 
mankind and the ages. 

" What were the traits of character which made 
him leader and master, without a rival, in the greatest 
crisis in our history ? What gave him such mighty 
power? Lincoln had sublime faith in the people. 
He walked with and among them. He recognized 
the importance and power of enlightened public sen- 
timent, and was guided by it. Even amid the vicis- 
situdes of war he concealed little from the public re- 
view and inspection. In all he did he invited rather 
than evaded examination and criticism. He sub- 
mitted his plans and purposes, as far as practicable, 
to public consideration with perfect frankness and 
sincerity. There was such homely simplicity in his 
character that it could not be hedged in by the pomp 
of place nor the ceremonials of high official station: 



152 McKT]\TLEY OX CIVIC PATEIOTISM 

He was so accessible to the public that he seemed to 
take the whole people into his confidence, 

" Here, perhaps, was one secret of his power. The 
people never lost their confidence in him, however 
much they unconsciously added to his personal dis- 
comfort and trials. His patience was almost super- 
human. And who will say that he was mistaken in 
his treatment of the thousands who thronged con- 
tinually about them ? More than once, when re- 
proached for permitting visitors to crowd upon him, 
he asked, with pained surprise, * Why, what harm 
does this confidence in men do me?' Horace 
Greeley once said : * I doubt whether man, woman, 
or child, white or black, bond or free, virtuous or 
vicious, ever accosted or reached forth a hand to 
Abraham Lincoln and detected in his countenance 
or manner any repugnance or shrinking from the 
proffered contact, any assumption of superiority or 
betrayal of disdain.' Bancroft, the historian, allud- 
ing to this characteristic, which was never so con- 
Bpicuously manifested as during the darker hours of 
the war, beautifully illustrated it in these memorable 
words: 'As a child, in a dark night, on a rugged 
way, catches hold of the hand of its father for guid- 
ance and support, Lincoln clung fast to the hand of 
the people and moved calmly through the gloom.' 

" His earliest public utterances were marked by 
this confidence. On March 9th, 1832, when announc- 
ing himself a candidate for Representative, he said 
that he felt it his duty to make known to the people 



McKINLEY OX CIVIC PATRIOTISM 153 

his sentiments upon the questions of the day. 
'Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition/ 
he observed, ' and whether it be true or not I can say 
for one that I liave no other so o;reat as that of beins; 
truly esteemed of my fellow men by rendering my- 
self worthy of their esteem. How far I shall suc- 
ceed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be de- 
veloped. I am young and unknown to many of you. 
I was born and have ever remained in the most 
humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular 
relatives or friends to recommend me. My case is 
thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of 
the county. . . . But if the good people in 
their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the back- 
ground, I have been too familiar with disappointment 
to be very much chagrined.' 

" In this remarkable address, made when he was 
only twenty-three, the main elements of Lincoln's 
character and the qualities which made his great 
career possible are revealed with startling distinct- 
ness. We see therein * that brave old wisdom of 
sincerity,' that oneness in feeling v/ith the common 
people, and that supreme confidence in them which 
formed the foundation of his political faith. 

" Among the statesmen of America Lincoln is the 
true democrat, and — Franklin, perhaps, excepted — 
the first great one. He had no illustrious ancestry, 
no inherited place or wealth, and none of the pres- 
tige, power, training, or culture which were assured 
to the gentry or landed classes of our own colonial 



154 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATEIOTISM 

times. Nor did Lincoln believe that these classes — 
respectable and patriotic however they might be — 
should, as a matter of abstract right, have the con- 
trolling influence in our government. Instead, he be- 
lieved in the all-pervading power of public opinion. 

" Lincoln had little or no instruction in the com- 
mon school ; but, as the eminent Dr. Cuyler has said, 
he was graduated from ' the grand college of free 
labor, whose works were the flatboat, the farm, and 
the backwoods lawyer's office.' He had a broad com- 
prehension of the central idea of popular govern- 
ment. The Declaration of Independence was his 
hand-book ; time and again he expressed his belief 
in freedom and equality. On July 1st, 1854, he 
wrote: *Most governments have been based, prac- 
tically, on the denial of the equal rights of men. 
Ours began by affirming those rights. They said : 
* Some men are too ignorant and vicious to share in 
government.' ' Possibly so,' said we, * and by your 
system you would always keep them ignorant and 
vicious. We propose to give all a chance, and we 
expect the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant wiser, 
and all better and happier together.' We made the 
experiment, and the fruit is before us. Look at it, 
think of it. Look at it in its aggregate grandeur, 
extent of country, and numbers of population.' 

"His antecedent life seems to have been one of 
unconscious preparation for the great responsibilities 
which were committed to him in 1860. Being one 
of the masses himself, living among them, sharing 



McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 155 

their feelings, sympathizing with tlieir daily trials, 
their hopes, and aspirations, he was better fitted to 
lead them than any other man of his age. He 
recognized more clearly than any one else that the 
plain people he met in his daily life and knew so 
familiarly were, according to our theory of govern- 
ment, its ultimate rulers and the arbiters of its des- 
tiny. He knew this, not as a theory, but from his 
personal experience. 

"Born in poverty, so great that in America it is now 
almost impossible to find its like, and surrounded by 
obstacles on every hand seemingly insurmountable 
but for the intervening hand of Providence, Lincoln 
grew every year into greater and grander intellectual 
power and vigor. His life until he was twelve years 
old was spent either in a half-faced camp or cabin. 
Yet amid such surroundings the boy learned to read, 
write, and cipher, to think, declaim, and speak in a 
manner far beyond his years and time. All his days 
in the schoolhouse ' added together would not make 
a single year.' But every day of his life, from 
infancy to manhood, was a constant drill in the school 
of nature and experience. 

" His study of books and newsjiapers was beyond 
that of any other person in his town or neighbor- 
hood, and perhaps of his county or section. He did 
not read many books, but he learned more from 
them than any other reader. It was strength of 
body as well as mind that made Lincoln's career 
possible. Ill success only spurred him into making 



156 McKINLEY OX CIVIC PATRIOTISM 

himself more worthy of trust and confidence. Noth- 
ing could daunt him. He might have but a single 
tow linen shirt, or only one pair of jeans pantaloons, 
he often did not know where his next dollar was to 
come from, but he mastered English grammar and 
composition, arithmetic, geometry, surveying, logic, 
and the law. 

" How well he mastered the art of expression is 
shown by the incident of the Yale professor who 
heard his Cooper Institute speech and called on 
him at his hotel to inquire where he had learned 
his matchless power as a public speaker. The 
modest country lawyer was in turn surprised to be 
suspected of possessing unusual talents as an orator, 
and could only answer that his sole training had 
been in the school of experience. 

" Eight years' service in the Illinois Legislature, 
two years in Congress, and nearly thirty years' 
political campaigning in the most exciting period of 
American politics gave scope for the development of 
his powers, and that tact, readiness, and self-reliance 
which were invaluable to a modest, backward man 
such as Lincoln naturally was. Added to these 
qualities he had the genius which communizes, which 
puts a man on a level, not only witli the highest, but 
with the lowest of his kind. By dint of patient 
industry and by using wisely his limited opportu- 
nities he became the most popular orator, the best 
political manager, and the ablest leader of his party 
in Illinois. 



McKmLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 157 

" But the best training he had for the Presidency, 
after all, was his twenty-three years' arduous expe- 
rience as a lawyer, traveling the circuit of the courts 
of his district and State. Here he met in forensic 
contests, and frequently defeated, some of the most 
powerful legal minds of the West. la the higher 
courts he won still greater distinction in the impor- 
tant cases committed to his charge. 

" With this preparation it is not surprising that 
Lincoln entered upon the Presidency peculiarly 
well equipped for its vast responsibilities. His con- 
temporaries, however, did not realize this. The 
leading statesmen of the country were not prepos- 
sessed in his favor. They appear to have had no 
conception of the remarkable powers latent beneath 
that uncouth and rugged exterior." 

THE PANIC — MONEY — A CONVERT. 
[East Liverpool, Ohio, October 17th, 1893.] 

"In the midst of unexampled plenty, with no 
inflation of prices, for prices had never been so low ; 
with no inflation of money, witli every dollar in cir- 
culation as good as evei-y other dollar, with no pre- 
mium on gold, we are struck by business depression 
from ocean to ocean. AVhat has occasioned this? 
Is it the money of the country ? We have more 
money to-day than we ever had in all our history, 
and we have as good mr ney as we ever had before. 
Every dollar is worth ] )0 cents and every dollar good 



158 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATEIOTISM 

to pay all debts — private or public. We have every- 
thing we had last year but prosjierity. We bartered 
that away for a change of administration. [Terrific 
trumpeting of tin horns.] If the President were 
here to-night he would not have to inquire whether 
we are making tin in the United States. [Laughter 
and renewed trumpeting.] These tin horns here 
tell the story, and I doubt not every one of them 
was made from American tin [applause], which two 
years ago they said we could not make in the United 
States. This year we have the same men, same 
money, same machinery, and the same markets that 
we had last year, but we have another management. 
We have the same enterprise, same energy, same 
magnificent manufacturing plants, but the people 
last year decided for a change of policy. 

" The money of this country — and I speak to Demo- 
crats and Republicans alike — should be as fixed and 
unvarying as human ingenuity can make it. It 
measures everything you have to sell ; the product 
of the farm, the merchandise in the store, the labor 
of your hands and the skill and genius of your 
brain, and if it is varying in value you never 
know what you may get for your products when 
you sell them. Therefore it is but right that 
you should 023pose any and every attempt to resur- 
rect the wildcat money of forty years ago. There 
is not one Southern State that is not in favor 
of State bank money. Do you know why ? Because 
they still believe in State sc ^'^ereignty. They don't 



McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 159 

seem to 'realize that State sovereignty was shot to 
death twenty-five years ago. [Applause.] When 
wool buyers — they come as single buyers now — go 
around they pay free trade prices, because the Demo- 
cratic party pledged themselves to make wool free, 
and they are in power in every branch of the Gov- 
ernment. They have so declared in their national 
platform and they even passed free wool through the 
last House of Representatives, and it should to-day 
have been a law had it not been for a Eepublican 
Senate and a Kepublican President. The wool 
buyer remembers this when he is buying wool, 
and so he pays free trade prices. This is true of 
every branch of industry. It is true of every de- 
partment of labor. But you have still the Protec- 
tive Tariff they say. Yes, but you are pledged 
to repeal it, and the man who receives notice that 
his house is about to be demolished does not wait 
until the dynamite is put in, but moves out his furni- 
ture as soon as he can. Now what will start your 
factories ? [" Hundred thousand majority for Mc- 
Kinley in November !"] What is lower tariff for ? 
It is to make it easier for foreign goods to get in the 
United States, to increase competition from abroad. 

" The peoj^le who voted for a change last fall are 
not satisfied, and the people who did not vote for a 
change are not satisfied. We find Democrats petition- 
ing to have the tariff left undisturbed. There are a 
good many of them who have loqjjed into it, 
["Ikirt?"] Mr. Ikirt, my friend suggests. Your 



160 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 

own fellow-citizen and your Kej^resentative in Con- 
gress; he too has looked into the ^^ottery industry 
since last election. He says in his statement that he 
has given consideration to it. Well, it is better to 
give it consideration after than not at all ; but it is 
better always to consider before election if j^ou can. 
He appears before the Ways and Means Committee 
and asks them not to disturb the tariff on pottery. I 
did not expect we would ever get so close — the Doctor 
and I. I remember he was my competitor for Con- 
gress once. He was then a free trader, and said pro- 
tection was a fraud. There is nothing that has done 
my heart so much good as to find the Doctor down 
there appealing for the continuance of a tariff of 
sixty-five per cent, on pottery. It does my heart 
good to find him down there fighting for a tariff 
which I had put upon pottery myself. There is a 
sort of pathos about this statement of the Doctor's. 
After appealing for the j^ottery industry he says, 
*To err is human, to forgive divine.* That is a 
quotation from his speech. I suppose from that that 
it was human for him to err last year, and we have 
forgiven him for the errors and we welcome him to 
us. The only thing left for the Doctor to do is to 
get leave of absence, come home on election day and 
vote for me for Governor, and I have no doubt he 
will, because my competitor believes in fi-ee trade and 
declares that a Protective Tariff is a fraud, while the 
Doctor is in favor of sixty-five per cent, of inci- 
dental * protection. I was one of those who helped 



McKINLKY OX CIVIC PATIU0TI8M IGl 

to make that tariff. I did not regard it as incidental 
nor accidental, I assure you. I helped to put it there 
to protect the potters of the United States and their 
labor, and it did it ; and every Democrat in both 
branches of Congress voted against it — every one of 
them. Therefore I say it delights my heart to find 
the Doctor at last won over to the ' robber tariff' that 
cheats everybody, not only the consumer but the 
laborer, and is willing to take sixty-five per cent, for 
pottery. If for pottery, why not for iron and steel, 
wool, glass, cotton, and woolen goods ?" 

ADDRESS ON THE FIELD OF CHICKAMAUGA. 

September 18th, 1895. 

"The exhibition of high soldierly qualities dis- 
played by both the blue and the gray will be on every 
tongue to-day. The battle will be fought over a 
thousand times in memory between those who lately 
contended angrily on this field. All that is well. 

" But, after all, my countrymen, what was it all 
for ? What did it mean ? What was all this strug- 
gle, all tliis exhibition of heroism, and these appalling 
sacrifices for? A reunited country makes answer. 
No other is needed. A union, stronger and freer than 
ever before, a civilization, higher and nobler than ever 
before ; a common flag, dearer and more glorious than 
ever before ; and all, all of them secure from any 
quarter, because the contestants against each other 
ou this historic field thirty-two years ago are now 



162 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 

united, linked in their might forever against any 
enemy which would assail either union or civilization 
or freedom or flag. 

" The sacrifice here made was for what we loved, 
and for what we meant should endure. A reunited 
people, a reunited country, is the glorious reward. 

" The war has been over thirty-one years. There 
never has been any trouble since between the men 
who fought on the one side or the other. The trouble 
has been between the men who fought on neither 
side — who could get on the one side or the other, as 
occasion or interest demanded. The bitterness and 
resentments of the war belong to the past, and its 
glories are the common heritage of us all. What 
was won in that great conflict belongs just as securely 
to those who lost as to those who triumphed. The 
future is in our common keeping, the sacred trust of 
all the people. Let us make it worthy of the glorious 
men who died for it on this and other fields of the 
war. 

" It is gratifying to the State that these monuments 
are hereafter to be in the keeping of the United 
States Government. The government they preserved 
should guard them ; that is where they belong. 
Henceforth these monuments shall be the precious 
possession of all the j^eople. They show, Mr. Presi- 
dent, the honor paid by a great commonwealth to 
the patriotic valor of her sons. They are calculated 
to encourage patriotic devotion for all time. They 
are the nation's guarantee that the bond of Union 



McKINLEY ON" CIVIC PATRIOTISM 163 

shall not be broken. Their lesson is that the Con- 
stitution is and shall remain the supreme law over all. 
"In this great battle some fought to save the 
Union, others to divide it. Those who fought to save 
triumphed, and so the Union survived. Slavery was 
abolished, peace restored, the Union strengthened, 
and now, hand in hand, all stand beneath the folds 
of one flag, acknowledging no other, marching for- 
ward together in the enjoyment of one common 
country and in the fulfillment of one glorious des- 
iiny." 

McKINLEY AND OHIo's ANTI-LYNCHING LAW. 

[Governor McKinley's Message to the General Assembly of Ohio, 
January, 1896.] 

" Within the last year mere have been two at- 
tempts to lynch prisoners charged with crime who 
were under arrest and in custody of the officers of 
the law. In both cases the aid of the military was 
invoked by the Sheriffs of the counties ; in both cases 
the law was upheld and the prisoners protected from 
the lynchers, but, unfortunately in both cases, only 
after the sacrifice of life. In the case in Seneca 
County two men were killed before the military had 
arrived. In the case in Fayette County the military 
were present, acting under the orders of the Sheriff. 
The protection of the prisoners in this case, to the 
deep regret of all concerned, resulted in the loss of 
a number of lives. The spirit which holds the laws 



164 McKIXLEY OK CIVIC PATRIOTISM 

of tlie State and the authority of its chosen officers, 
acting within the law, in contempt, should not be per- 
mitted to triumph anywhere in Ohio. This State 
has boasted, and can justly boast, of the virtue and 
purity of its courts and the uprightness and fairness 
of its juries. The spirit of lynching is a reflection 
upon both courts and juries, and all the legally-consti- 
tuted authorities of the counties and the State as well. 
If there be a crime so repulsive that the punishment 
inflicted by existing law is inadequate, let the pres- 
ent General Assembly, by law, promptly increase 
the penalty. I urge the General Assembly to use 
all the power at its command to frown upon and 
stamp out this spirit of lawlessness, which is a re- 
proach upon the State and a shock to our civiliza- 
tion. Lynching must not be tolerated in Ohio." 



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HON. THOMAS B. REED. 




CHAUNCEY M. DEi'EW. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE LESSONS OF HEKOIC LIVES. 

McKinley a patriot —Oration— Piety and patriotism — Lessons ot 
heroism— Influences of Chautauqua — A fighting patriot — The 
grand review — A generous eulogy— Illustrious names. 

THE oration before the Chautauqua Assembly, 
Grand Army Day, Monday, August 26th, 
1895, is an example of the simplicity and 
elevation of McKinley on a patriotic theme — and is 
worthy of study for purity of style and force of ex- 
pression. 

"Oration before the Chautauqua Assembly, 
ON Grand Army Day, Monday, August 26th, 

1895. 

" Mr. President, Comrades of the Grand Army of 
the Republic, Ladies and Gentlemen : It would have 
given me pleasure to meet this splendid Chautauqua 
Assembly at any time, but my gratification is the 
greater because I am invited to participate with you 
on the day which you have consecrated to country, 

167 



168 LESSONS OF HEROIC LIVES . 

the day you have devoted to patriotism and the 
memories of the past, with all their precious lessons. 
What could be more fitting on the part of this asso- 
ciation, whose chief objects are to exalt Christianity 
and promote sound learning, than to set apart a day 
to the brave men whose service and sacrifice pre- 
served unimpaired the liberties we enjoy, for our-' 
selves and i)0sterity ? Piety and patriotism have 
always been closely allied. My older hearers will 
recollect the fervent words, and recall with fond 
affection the matchless voice of dear old Bishop 
Simpson, who said in 1861 : ' Nail the flag just below 
the cross ! That is high enough — Christ and country, 
nothing can come between nor long prevail against 
them.' [Applause.] 

" The lessons of heroism and sacrifice are not con- 
fined to any age or people, nor are they limited to 
the participants or the survivors, but are for all the 
people living, or who may come hereafter. Fortu- 
nately, in the economy of the Most High, the influ- 
ence of any duty nobly done, or of courage or devo- 
tion in any good cause, is never lost. It strengthens 
with the ages, blessing and consecrating as the years 
recede, and inspiring others to suffer, and, if needs 
be, die for conscience and country. This was the 
spirit which animated the soldiers of the Kevolution 
and the Rebellion, and distinguished both. They 
battled neither for commerce nor conquest, but for 
immortal principles, involving alike human rights 
and the highest welfare of the human race. What 



LESSONS OF HEROIC LIVES 169 

was lost to America in the first great struggle was 
uobly regained in the hist. 

"Tliese patriotic assemblages cannot, therefore, be 
too frequent, which invite a proper study of the past, 
not in hatred, passion, or bitterness, but to teach and 
enforce more plainly the blessings of peace, union, 
and fraternal love. They bring us closer together, 
as a reunited and happy people, guided by the ex- 
ampxe of the Master^ whose life was one of sacrifice, 
and who is glorified as the Man of Peace and Son of 
God. 

" It is easy to decry the events and institutions 
with which we are familiar, but, after all, we have 
many — very many — patriotic altars, and should have 
many more national celebrations. All along the 
pathway of our national life, from Lexington to 
Appomattox, we breathe the incense of heroism. We 
are not unmindful of the mighty deeds of the past, 
nor indifferent to the heroes who achieved them, 
nor can we be oblivious to the glories of the present, 
and the bright promise for the future. In a certain 
sense our churches and schools, our newspapers and 
literature, are constantly insi^iring us with new and 
greater love of home and country. The work and 
influence of such great popular assemblages as this, 
not only here at Chautauqua, the fountain head of 
them all, but in other and distant States, are of price- 
less value to the people. [Aj^plause.] 

" You have builded wise and well. You have not 
only given to the world's vocabulary a new, beautiful. 



r'/O LESSONS OF IIEliOIC LIVES 

and significant name, but to the world itself a new 
and holy zeal in the good cause of Christianity and 
scientific and literary study. You are to be congratu- 
lated that the religious, educational, and fraternal in- 
fluences of Chautauqua are greater, far greater, than 
you know, and everywhere, at home and abroad, are 
beneficial and elevating to mankind. Liberty of 
thought, speech, and conscience hold full sway on 
these congenial grounds. Bigotry is neither encour- 
aged nor tolerated, but, in the true spirit of the 
fathers, liberty and learning go hand-in-hand. In 
such an atmosphere American patriotism must burn 
with full flame, and as a. light to the feet of all. 
[Applause.] 

For what is patriotism ? Did you ever stop to 
reflect upon what it embi-aces? There is born in 
every manly breast the determination to defend the 
thing he loves. We strike down the enemy who 
would invade our homes, and guard family and fire- 
side at the peril of our lives. There is no sentiment 
so strong as love ; no sacrifice too great for those we 
love. This is the underlying principle of genuine 
patriotism ; the foundation of true loyalty to country. 
The patriot is he who, loving his country, is willing 
not only to fight, but, if need be, to die for it. It is 
this sentiment which gives to human governments 
their strength, security, and permanency. It is this 
sentiment which nerves the soldier to duty, and gains 
his consent to service and sacrifice. The strongest 
and best government is the one which rests upon the 



LESSON'S OF IIEEOIC LIVES 171 

reverent affection of its own people; and the nearer 
the government to the people, and the people to the 
government, the stronger becomes the sentiment of 
patriotism, and the stronger becomes the government 
itself. The laws are of little or no value if they do 
not have behind them the respect and love of the 
people. When patriotism is gone out of the hearts 
of the masses the country is nearing dissolution and 
death. [Applause.] 

" Did you ever seriously reflect what it means to 
be a fighting patriot ? Many people preach and pro- 
fess patriotism, but the true patriot is he who prac- 
tices it, and he can seldom practice it by proxy. 
Patriotism is the absolute consecra;cIx>n of self to 
country ; it is the total abandonment of business ; it 
is the turning away from plans which have been 
formed for a life's career. It is the surrendering 
of bright prospects, and the giving up of ambition 
in a chosen work. It is the sundering of the ties 
of home and family, almost the snapping of the 
heart-strings which bind us to those we love. It 
may mean disease contracted by exposure or from 
wounds in battle. It may mean imprisonment, in- 
sanity or death. It may mean hunger, thirst, and 
starvation. 

" In our own Civil War it meant all of these. With 
all these hard conditions there were nearly three 
million men who so loved liberty and union that 
they were willing at any cost or hazard to follow our 
flag. The blood of a half million men was exacted 



irg LESSONS OF HEROIC LIVES 

in that fearful couflict to save the country ; and there 
are to-day tens of thousands who are suffering from 
disease contracted in the service of the government, 
and many thousands more bearing wounds from 
which they suffer every hour in the day, and some of 
these, alas ! are in distressing poverty. Our asylums 
contain many more of the poor fellows whose hard ser- 
vice dethroned reason and unbalanced mind forever. 
The demands of patriotism meant for many wives 
widowhood, for many children orphanage. They took 
from many a mother her whole support, the love of 
the son, upon whose strong arm she had counted to 
lean in her declining years. There was nothing per- 
sonally attractive or promising about any of the 
features of enlistment in the War of the Eebellion ; 
it was business of the most serious sort. Every sol- 
dier took dreadful chances. His offering was noth- 
ing short of his own life's blood, if his country should 
require it. This, however, then seemed insignificant 
in that overmastering love of country, in that burn- 
ing patriotism which filled the souls of the boys in 
blue, in that high and noble purpose which animated 
them all, that they were to save to themselves, to 
their families, and their fellow-countrymen the freest 
and best and purest government ever known, and to 
mankind the largest and best civilization in the 
world. [Applause.] 

" With that spirit nearly three million men went 
forth to accept any sacrifice which cruel war might 
demand. The extent of that sacrifice far exceeded 



LESSONS OF HEROIC LIVES 173 

human expectation, but it was offered freely on the 
altar of their beloved country. Can we ever cease 
to be debtors to these men ? Is there any reward in 
reason they should not receive ? Is there any emolu- 
ment too great for them ? Is there any benefaction 
too bountiful ? Is there any obligation too lasting ? 
Is there any honor to these patriotic men which a 
loving people can bestow that they should not 
extend ? What the nation is, or may become, we 
owe largely to them. 

" In the Grand Review, at the end of the war, 
which stands unchallenged as the greatest ever wit- 
nessed by human eyes, stretched across the great 
marble capitol at Washington, greeting the sight of 
every soldier who passed, was a banner bearing this 
inscription : * There is one debt which this nation 
never can pay, and that is the debt it owes the brave 
men who saved this nation.' That was true then ; 
it is no less true now. 

" If there is one of those old patriots sick at heart 
and discouraged, should not the cheerful and the 
strong, who are to-day the beneficiaries of his valor, 
comfort and console him ? If there is one who is 
sick or suffering from wounds, should not the best 
skill and the most tender nursing wait upon and 
attend him ? Fortunately, our people have so far 
never failed in the most generous response to all such 
demands upon them. 

" We are not a martial nation, but no government 
of the world can boast a more devoted, self-sacrificing, 



174 LESSONS OF HEEOIC LIVES 

or patriotic citizenship than that which has estab- 
lished and maintained our free institutions for the 
past one hundred and nineteen years. Nor are we 
a nation of hero worshipers, but the men who 
fought and suffered from the Ee volution to the 
Rebellion for independence, freedom, and union, 
are devotedly cherished in memory by the Ameri- 
can people. The soldiers of no other country in 
the world have been crowned with such immortal 
meed, or received at the hands of the people such 
substantial evidences of national regard. Other 
nations have decorated their great captains and 
knighted their illustrious commanders ; monuments 
have been erected to perpetuate their names ; 
permanent and triumphal arches have been raised 
to mark their graves. Nothing has been omitted 
to manifest and make immortal their valorous 
deeds. 

"In the United States we not only honor our 
great captains and illustrious commanders — the men 
who led our vast armies to battle — but we shower 
honors in equal measure upon all, irrespective of rank 
in battle or condition at home. Our gratitude is of 
that grand patriotic character which recognizes no 
titles, permits no discrimination, subordinates all dis- 
tinction ; and the soldier or sailor, whether of the 
rank and file, the line or the staff, infantry, cavalry, 
or artillery, on land or sea, who fought and fell for 
liberty and union — indeed, all who served in the 
great cause — are warmly cherished in the hearts and 



LESSONS OF HEROIC LIVES 175 

are sacred to the memories of a great and generous 
people. [Aj)plause.] 

" From the verj commencement of the Civil AYar 
we recognized the elevated patriotism of the rank 
and file of the army, and their unselfish consecration 
to the country, while subsequent years have only 
served to increase our admiration for their sj^lendid 
and heroic services. They enlisted in the army with 
no expectation of promotion — not for the paltry pit- 
tance of pay, not for fame or j)opular applause, for 
their services, limvever efficient, were not to be 
heralded abroad. i'hey entered the army moved 
by the highest and j)urest motives of patriotism, 
that no harm might befall the republic. While 
detracting nothing from the fame of our matchless 
leaders, we know that without that great army 
of volunteers — the citizen soldiery — the brilliant 
achievements of the war would not have been pos- 
sible. They, my countrymen, were the great power, 
the majestic and irresistible force. They stood be- 
hind the strategic commanders, whose intelligence 
and individual earnestness, guided by their genius, 
gained the imperishable victories of the war. 

" I would not withhold the most generous eulogy 
from conspicuous soldiers, living or dead ; from the 
leaders — Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Meade, 
Hancock, McClellan, Hooker, Howard, Logan, and 
Garfield — who flame out the very incarnation of sol- 
dierly valor and vigor before the eyes of the Ameri- 
can people, who have an exalted rank in history, 



176 LESSOXS OF HEROIC LIVES 

and fill a great 2:)lace in the hearts of their country- 
men. We need not fear, my fellow- citizens, that 
the great captains will be forgotten. No retrospect 
of the war can be had, no history of the war can be 
written, which shall omit the name of the gallant 
Sheridan, who made the scene of Stonewall Jackson's 
stronghold in the Shenandoah Valley his field of 
glory ; and no contemplation of the war can be had 
that shall pass unnoticed the name of the illustrious 
Hancock, whose brilliant achievements at Gettysburg 
and upon other noted fields covered him with fame. 
And no history of this war can be written which will 
omit the name of the glorious Sherman — that grand 
old soldier who delved into the mountains at Chatta- 
nooga and came out S2:>lendidly triumphant at the sea. 
No, we can never forget that majestic triumvirate, nor 
especially the great captain who commanded all the 
grand military divisions of the grandest army of the 
world — for Grant will be remembered forever. That 
silent, sturdy soldier, who closed his lips on the word 
* victory' at the Wilderness and refused to speak, but 
fought it out on that line until the complete sur- 
render at Appomattox, and who, while looking into 
his own open grave, summed up in history the 
matchless work of the Grand Army of the Ee- 
public wrought under his glorious leadership. 
[Applause.] 

" Nor can any retrospect of the war be had which 
shall omit the names of the gallant naval ofiicers who 
contributed such distinguished service to the Uniorj 



LESSONR OF HEROIC LIVES 177 

cause — Porter, Dalilgren, Goldsborough, DupoDt, 
Foote, Aiumen, Rowan ; and, 

" ' While old Ocean's bioast bears a white sail, 

And God's soft stars at rest j^uide through the gale. 
Men will ne'er thy name forget, heart of oak, 
Farragut, Farragut, thunderbolt's stroke.' " 



CHAPTER IX. 



McKINLEY AND MONEY. 



Nominated for Governor— The sound mone}^ battle— A full dollar— 
Not willing to chance it— Two yard-sticks— Struggle against 
inflation— A high compliment- Opposed to unlimited coinage 
— Treasury Report. 

IN 1889 James E. Campbell, in the Ohio Guber- 
natorial race, defeated Joseph B. Foraker, who, 
against his judgment, yielded to solicitations to 
run for a third term, and when Campbell's term was 
waning, he was nominated for re-election on a silver 
platform. There were some timid people of the Repub- 
lican persuasion who thought it would be disastrous 
to nominate McKinley for Governor — he was so 
"extreme" and "high" a protectionist, and could 
not win in putting that before the people. McKinley 
was nominated, however, and then came the crisis of 
his career as a public man. He had become famous 
in Congress, and he had to be Governor or step aside. 
What did he do — evade the money question ? The 
Democrats had presented themselves as for free and 
unlimited coinage of silver. Did McKinley fail to 
meet that issue ? On the contrary, he met it fairly 

178 



McKII^LEY AND MONEY 179 

and squarely. His opening speech in tliis campaign 
of 1891 was at Niles, Ohio (his birthplace), August 
22d, and he put the money question to the front, 
saying : 

"The Democratic platform declares for the free 
and unlimited coinage of the silver of the world, to 
be coined, as freely as gold is now, upon the same 
terms and under the existing ratio. The platform of 
the Republican party stands in opposition to any- 
thing short of a full and complete dollar. The legis- 
lation of the last Congress is the strongest evidence 
which can be furnished of the purpose of the Repub- 
lican party to maintain silver as money, and of its 
resolution to keep it in use as part of our circulating 
medium equal with gold. The law which the Re- 
publican party put upon the statute books declares 
the settled policy of the government to be 'to main- 
tain the two metals upon a parity with each other 
upon the present legal ratio, or such ratio as may be 
provided by law.' 

"The free and unlimited coinage of silver, demanded 
by the Democratic Convention recently held in 
Cleveland, amounts to this : That all the silver of the 
world, and from every quarter of the world, can be 
brought to the mints of the United States and coined 
at the expense of the government ; that is, that the 
mints of the United States must receive 41 2 J grains 
of silver, which is now worth but 80 cents the world 
over, and coin therefor a silver dollar, which, by the 
fiat of the government, is to be received by the people 



180 McKINLEY AND MONEY 

of the United States, and to circulate among them a» 
worth a full dollar of 100 cents. 

" The silver producer, whose 41 2 i grains of silver 
are worth only 80 cents or less in the markets of 
this country and the world, is thus enabled to 
demand that the government shall take it at 100 
cents. Will the government be as kind to the pro- 
ducer of wheat, and pay him 20 cents more per 
bushel than the market price? The silver dollar 
now issued under a limited coinage has 80 cents of 
intrinsic value in it, so accredited the world over ; 
and the other 20 cents is legislative will — the mere 
breath of Congress. That is, what the dollar lacks 
of value to make it a perfect dollar Congress supplies 
by public declaration, and holds the extra 20 cents 
in the Treasury for its protection. The government, 
buying the silver at its market value, takes to itself 
the profit between the market value of 412^ grains 
of silver and the face value of the silver dollar. 
Now it is proposed to remove the limit and to make 
the government coin, not for account of the Treasury, 
but for the benefit of the silver mine-owner. 

" It does not take a wise man to see that, if a 
dollar worth only 80 cents intrinsically, coined with- 
out limit, is made a legal tender to the amount of its 
face value for the payment of all debts, public and 
private, a legal tender in all business transactions 
among the people, it will become in time the exclu- 
sive circulating medium of the country. Gold, which 
is 20 per cent, more valuable on every dollar, will 



McKINLEY AND MONEY iSl 

not be paid out in any transactions in this country 
when an 80-cent silver dollar will ansAver the pur- 
pose. ISTor will the greenback be long in returning 
to the Treasury for redemption in gold. We shall 
do our business, therefore, with short dollars, rather 
than with full dollars, as we are now doing. The 
gold dollar will be taken from the circulating medium 
of the country and hoarded, and the effect will be 
that the circulating medium will not be increased, 
but reduced to the extent of the gold circulating, 
and we will be compelled to do the business of the 
country with a silver dollar exclusively — which, 
under present conditions, is confessedly the poorest — 
instead of doing our business with gold and silver 
and paper money, all equal and all alike good." 

Governor McKinley quoted President Cleveland 
and the Hon. M. D. Harter, a Democratic Kepresen- 
tative in Congress, and proceeded : 

" My competitor (Governor Campbell) has said in 
his reported interviews that in sentiment, upon this 
subject, ' The Democrats of Ohio are very much 
divided ; that the vote in the convention was a very 
close one.' This close vote only emphasizes the 
danger of the free coinage declaration in the minds 
of a large number of the Democrats in the State, but 
enjoins the importance and necessity of the friends 
of honest money standing together, as in all the 
contests of the past they have been forced to stand 
together for an honest currency. Governor Campbell 
declared in one of his interviews that, while he had 



182 McKINLEY AND MON"EY 

doubts about it, he was willing * to chance free and 
unlimited coinage of silver.* I am not willing to 
* chance ' it. Under present conditions the country 
cannot afford to chance it. We cannot gamble with 
anything so sacred as money, which is the standard 
and measure of all values. I can imagine nothing 
which would be more disturbing to our credit and 
more deranging in our commercial and financial 
affairs than to make this the dumping ground of the 
world's silver. The silver producer might be bene- 
fited, but the silver user never. If there is to be any 
profit in the coinage of silver, it should go to the 
government. It has gone to the government ever 
since the Bland- Allison law went into effect. The 
new declaration would take it from the government 
and give it to the silver producer. 

" Now, the people know that, if we had two yard- 
sticks, one three feet in length and the other two and 
a half feet in length, the buyer would always have 
his goods measured to him by the shorter stick, and 
that the longer stick would go into permanent disuse. 
It is exactly so with money." 

Major McKinley proceeded to argue that the 
bondholders had been largely paid in 100-cent 
dollars, and that the pensioners should not be paid 
in depreciated dollars. He said of the struggle in 
1867: 

" When the attempt was made at that time by the 
leaders of the party that now stands in opposition to 
the Republican party to repudiate the debt to the 




Liu:.. .^lATTHEW STANLEY QUAY. 




HON. STEPHEN B. ELKINS. 



McKINLEY AND MONEY 185 

bondholder, or pay it off in depreciated currency, 
insisting that we never could pay it in full, the 
soldiers stood with the party which represents good 
faith to our creditors and the honorable payment of 
every obligation, and swept back the tide of inflation 
and repudiation. They said that the Union which 
they saved from force should have no stain upon its 
financial honor, but every debt it had contracted to 
preserve the Union sliould be paid in the best coin 
of the Republic, and every obligation should be 
sacredly kept and observed. They w^ere willing to 
wait for their pensions until the great money obliga- 
tion was discharged. The government credit was 
therefore sustained, and over two thousand millions 
of that great debt has been paid off, not in a clipped 
dollar, but in a full dollar. The positions are to-day 
reversed." 

In concluding this brancb of his subject. Major 
McKinley spoke for Ohio in these clear and unmis- 
takable terms, that are as pertinent to-day as then : 

" Ohio has never in the past given her vote for a 
debased currency, and she will not do so in the 
future. When the country was wild for inflation — 
in 1875 — under pressure of hard times (and they 
were hard), the sober sense of the people of this 
State, without regard of party, stemmed that awful 
tide. The people of Oliio had more to do than any 
other State or constituency of the Union in keeping 
the nation uj^on the rock of honest finance and honest 
currency. Thousands of Democrats helped in that 



186 McKINLEY AND MONEY 

great struggle — not through their own party organi- 
zation, hut hy leaving their party and joining with 
the party which represented good faith and honest 
dealing with the public creditor. They can take no 
other course this year. And the j)eople of Ohio will 
take no backward step." 

In the campaign with Campbell there was a joint 
debate at Ada, October 8th, when the questions at 
issue had been thoroughly gone over, and McKinley, 
describing the issues, said he projDOsed to occupy his 
time with two of them — the question of silver (giving 
it the first place again, it will be noticed), and the 
other question was that of taxation. 

This campaign is especially interesting in a study 
of the Kepublican candidate for the Presidency, and 
in view of the prominence given the question of 
money standards. McKinley had been gerryman- 
dered out of Congress by a Democratic Legislature, 
because he was the champion protectionist — one of 
the highest compliments he ever received. He was 
decorated with the particular displeasure of the 
Democracy, and, from their party point of view, de- 
served it. The people of Ohio took him up for 
enlarged public service, and the Democratic party 
adopted a free-silver coinage platform. The greatei 
distinction of McKinley was as a protectionist, but h^^ 
met the silver issue forced by the action of the Dem- 
ocratic party aggressively. At his opening and birth- 
place speech in this most critical time of his fortunes, 
he was prompt, thorough, and emphatic in his treat- 



McKINLEY AND MONEY 187 

ment of money questions, and his remarks cannot be 
read by one who understands the history and science 
of money without admiration for the evidence that 
McKinley has mastered the subject. He em2")loys 
the right word every time to express his exact mean- 
ing, and this precision of phrase is rare in the dis- 
cussions of the standards. Announcing the matters 
that were at issue between himself and Governor 
Campbell, McKinley said there were two prominent 
points, and " the one relates to the standard with 
which we shall measure our exchanges and our labor 
with each other and with the rest of the world, and 
the other relates to the subject and the method of 
taxation, by which we shall raise the needed revenues 
for public purposes. 

" The Hepublicans stood," the Major said, putting 
the actual money question in one plain sentence, 
"for a dollar worth one hundred cents," and he 
added : 

"You can buy to-day 371 i grains of pure silver, 
which constitutes the silver dollar ; you can buy it 
in the markets of the world to-day for 76 cents. 
Free and unlimited coinage invites the silver pro- 
ducers of the world to bring their 76 cents' worth of 
silver to the mints of the United States, the govern- 
ment agreeing to coin that silver into a silver dollar, 
and by its fiat compels people to take it for 100 cents, 
and the difference between 76 cents, which is the 
price of silver to-day, and 100 cents, which is the 
face value of the silver dollar, goes into the pockets 



188 McKINLEY AND MONEY 

of the silver kings of the world ; and if we had had 
free and unlimited coinage in the last twelve years 
the $67,000,000, which was the seigniorage or gain 
to the government, would have been divided among 
the silver producers of this country and the silver 
producers of the world. When we sell our labor or 
our crops, we want to get for it a money that is as 
good as the thing Ave gave for that money, and we 
want the thing we get to be unvarying in value — not 
only good to-day, but good every day of every week 
of every year ; not only good in the United States, 
but good where every trade goes. In a word, we 
want no short dollar, we want no short weight, we 
want no short measure. When the farmer sells his 
bushel of wheat he is required to give a full bushel 
in measure ; when he gets his pay he is entitled to 
have a full dollar in value." 

But it is said Governor McKinley once thought 
well of the " double standard." Well, he and Gov- 
ernor Campbell threshed that over together in their 
debate, and this is what McKinley said directly upon 
that subject : 

" In 1877 I voted to reinstate the ancient silver dol- 
lar a part of the coinage of the United States. Silver 
had been stricken from our coinage in 1873 — stricken 
by both political parties, the one just as responsible 
as the other — and in 1878, being in favor of both 
gold and silver as money, to be kept at parity one 
with the other, I voted for the restoration of the 
silver dollar. When I did it we had but 8,000,000 



McKINLEY AND MONEY 189 

silver dollars in circulation. AVlien I did it silver 
was more valuable than it is to-day. We have 405,- 
000,000 silver dollars to-day, and that is as much as 
we can maintain at par with gold with the price of 
silver that prevails throughout the world. I took 
every occasion to reinstate silver to its ancient place in 
our monetary system, because I wanted both metals. 
I am opposed to free and unlimited coinage, because 
it means that we will be put upon a silver basis, and do 
business with silver alone, instead of with gold, silver, 
and paper money, with which we do the business o£ 
the country to-day — every one of them as good as gold. 

"I want to tell the workingmen here and the 
farmers that it takes just as many blows of the 
hammer, it takes just as many strokes of the pick, it 
takes just as much digging, just as much sowing, and 
just as much reaping to get a short dollar as it does 
to get a full dollar. 

" A one hundred-cent dollar will go out of circula- 
tion alongside an eighty-cent dollar, which is a legal 
tender by the fiat of the government. And no class 
of people will suffer so much as the wage-earner and 
the agriculturist. If it is the farmer you would 
benefit, there is one way to do it. Make the bushel 
measure with which he measures his wheat for the 
buyer three pecks instead of four, and require the 
buyer to pay as much for three pecks as he now 
pays for four. No man knows what the future may 
be, but in our jDresent condition, and with our 
present light every consideration of safety require? 



190 McKIXLEY AND MONEY 

us to hold our present status until tlie other great 
nations shall agree to an international ratio." 

There is no sounder, simpler, more wholesome 
doctrine offered this day by any professional sound 
money man than this. More than that, there is no 
public man who speaks from liigher intelligence on 
this subject. But they say Major McKinley was in 
favor of the double standard, and we see those words 
in large type and displayed as if they were criminal. 
What he meant by the double standard he explained 
in this luminous passage : 

" I am not in favor of the free and unlimited 
coinage of silver in the United States until the 
nations of the world shall join us in guaranteeing 
to silver a status which their laws now accord to 
gold. The double standard implies equality at a 
ratio, and that equality can only be established by 
the concurrent law of the nations. It was the con- 
current law of nations that made the double stand- 
ard ; it will require the concurrent law to reinstate 
and sustain it. Until then for us to decree free and 
unlimited coinage of the world's silver would be to 
ordain that our silver dollars must surely depreciate 
and gold inevitably go to premium." 

It has been much mentioned, and McKinley speaks 
of it freely, that he voted to reinstate the ancient 
silver dollar — and was for it until we had demon- 
strated by coining four luindred millions and more, 
that this nation could not alone, ^ind in opposition to 
the great moneyed nations, reinstate silver Many 



McKINLEY AND MONEY 191 

have deuounced this action who should know that if 
it had not been for the coinage of silver by the 
hundred millions, and the policy of the parity of the 
precious metals insisted upon by the Republicans, the 
silver flood would have broken over all bounds and 
we should have been on the silver basis long ago. It 
was the very policy McKinley stood for that pre- 
vented our money from being Mexicanized. It was 
right and true and strong then, and right and true 
and strong now. 

The Treasury report for May gives the following 
figures of cash in the Treasury of the United States ; 

Gold- 
Coin $118,644,283 02 

Bars 32,662,859 89 

$151,307,142 91 

Silver — 

Dollars $376,572,499 00 

Subsidiary Coin . 15,637,424 37 

Bars 119,989,914 36 

■ $512,199,837 73 

This would seem to show that there is a good deal 
of bimetallism in our country. Of the full legal 
tender " demonetized " silver dollars we have on 
hand 376,644,283, forty-seven times the amount of 
dollars coined under the free silver system in the 
eighty years that it prevailed. That is the way this 
precious metal has been refused its right, and rob- 
bery of the people ensued. The silver storm still 
rages, notwithstanding tliis demonstration that one 
nation cannot restore silver except at an expense 
that would be ruinous. It is clear, however, to the 
calm and impartial student of our history, that with- 



193 McKINLEY AND MONEY 

out this effort to reinstate silver when it stood almost 
at a parity in the markets at the old ratio with gold, 
the constant decline of the price of the white metal 
would have been charged to the omission of the dol- 
lar from the coinage orders — and all financial troubles 
charged to the decline, and all the misfortunes of the 
people traced to the same source — and the result 
would have^been the overwhelming election of a free 
silver President and Congress, and we would have 
been Mexicanized as to money. 

If McKinley did make the mistake in his friendli- 
ness to silver of overvaluing it, he repeated an error 
of Alexander Hamilton, who fixed the original ratio 
in our coinage at 15 to 1. We have heard of the 
crime of the century in the demonetization of silver. 
Well, the man who first committed it was Thomas 
Jefferson, and here is the record : 

" Department of State, May 6, 1806. 
" To Robert Patterson, Esq., Director of the Mint. 
"Sir: In consequence of a representation from 
the Director of the Bank of the United States that 
considerable purchases have been made of dollars 
coined at the mint for the purpose of exporting them, 
and as it is probable that further purchases and ex- 
portations will be made, the President directs that 
the silvei coined at the mint-shall be of small denomi- 
nations, so that the value of the largest pieces shall 
not exceed half a dollar. I am, etc., 

"James Madison/* 



McKINLEY AND MONEY 193 

This was issued by President Jefferson. The coin- 
age of dollars was stopped on this order for thirty 
years. Many writers do not seem to have noticed 
this, to give it full weight and consideration. Silver 
was exported because it was the best money. 

There was great difficulty also in keeping our gold 
coin in use, and Thomas H. Benton said on the floor 
of the Senate in 1834 : 

" The valuation put upon gold has rendered the 
mint of the United States, so far as the gold coinage 
is concerned, a most ridiculous and absurd institu- 
tion. It has coined, and that at a large expense to 
the United States, 2,262,177 pieces of gold, worth 
$11,852,890, and where are the pieces now? Not 
one of them to be seen ! All sold and exported ! 
And so regular is the operation that the Director of 
the Mint, in his latest report to Congress, says that 
the new-coined gold frequently remains in the mint 
uncalled for, though ready for delivery, until the 
day arrives for a packet to sail for Europe. He cal- 
culates that two millions of native gold will be coined 
annually hereafter, the whole of which, without a 
reform of the gold standard, will be conducted, like 
exiles, from the national mint to the seashore and 
transported to foreign regions." 

This was followed by the law that reduced the 
quantity of gold li grains to the dollar. It will be 
observed that we had about as much trouble with 
gold as with silver coin. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE MONEY STANDARD QUESTIONS. 

Bow t .c! Money Standard Questions have been settled in and by the 
Republican party -Silver legislation in brief— How tlie country 
was saved from the silver standard— John Sherman and Wil- 
liam McKinley have marched together— The Hon, Charles 
Emory Smith's exposition of this question— The unexampled 
supply of gold is solving the money questions for the people 
and abolishing this issue. 

THE money questions have been settled by the 
Republican party, and the standard of 
sound money is like the flag of the country, 
established, and the credit of the nation fixed. There 
was no compromise in the peace of Appomattox and 
there has been none in the resumption of specie 
payments which marked the restoration of the public 
solvency. Republican policy has provided a national 
currency of paper, silver, and gold, equal' in volume 
to the wants of the people, and all good as gold. 
There was a powerful movement at the close of the 
war to enlarge the greenback issues and extend the 
limit of paper of that character to cover all the 
bonded obligations of the government, but the 
greenback was made as ^ood as gold, and then th<^ 

194 



THE MONEY STANDARD 195 

stress of the passionate green paper illusion passed 
away. 

The silver question took form when the country, 
under strong and wise guidance, approached resump- 
tion. It was then ascertained that we had partici- 
pated so far in an international plan to employ the 
money of resumption and secure the advantage of 
uniformity in coin to facilitate the intercourse of 
nations, as to omit from the mint regulations the 
coinage of the silver dollar — our only white metal 
coin of full legal tender value — and there was a for- 
midable tendency to retain the standing of silver in the 
mints without limitation. Silver had been " coin," 
in the meaning of the laws and contracts, through 
the war, and when the bonds were issued — especially 
when s})ecie payments had been suspended — and 
there was an impressive propriety that " gold and 
silver" should be "coin," when we resumed coin 
payments, the same as when they were suspended. 
There was but little variation then between the 
mint and market value of the two precious metals at 
their old familiar ratio of 15 J to 1 in Europe and 
16 to 1 in the United States, and the matter did not 
seem to be momentous. The fall of silver had set 
in, caused by the sale of silver in Germany, to estab- 
lish the gold standard, and the enormous silver pro- 
duction in Nevada. The general judgment — at least 
of those who had not been profound students or 
business experts in money — was that if we replaced 
silver at the mints the value of the metal in the 



196 THE MONEY STA^^DARD 

markets would advance to our ratio. This view of 
the case was at first taken by Major McKinley, but 
he supported the Allison amendment of the Bland 
bill, which was not to have " free " coinage of silver 
dollars, but forced — commanded — coinage, not less 
than two or more than four millions per month. 
Unquestionably this movement, originating with Mr. 
Allison in the Senate and supported by Mr. McKin- 
ley in the House, saved the country from the free 
coinage of silver, and, therefore, the silver standard ! 
John Sherman was Secretary of the Treasury, and 
coined the minimum sum — two millions a month. 
He advised against the veto of the measure by Presi- 
dent Hayes, suggesting that he should allow the bill 
to become a law without his approval, as he had 
conscientious scruples against attaching his signature. 
The bill was passed over the President's veto, and 
the continued fall of silver — while we coined over 
four hundred millions of white dollars — was an 
object lesson most convincing that the United 
States could not alone restore silver as a standard 
money of the world. 

We reached the point that it was necessary to stop 
the free coinage of silver or accept the silver standard, 
and we stopped, pledging ourselves to maintain the 
parity of the two money metals, and there we are 
now, and, like France, the great bimetallic country, 
we uphold silver as a money metal by the limitation 
of the coinage and the direct application of the 
public credit. 



THE MONEY STANDARD 197 

Major McKinley has stood with Secretary and 
Senator John Sherman with unfaltering courage and 
unshaken fidelity throughout this contest, and was 
conspicuous in it for his perfect understanding of the 
general situation, his intelligence as to the principles 
involved and applied, and his exact information in 
details. There is no better record for honest dealing 
with all the people on all the questions of sound 
money, first and last, than his. 

One of the most frank, instructive, and luminous 
discussions of the silver question has been supplied 
by the Hon. Charles Emory Smith, of Philadelphia, 
and is as follows : 

What is Free Coinage? 

BY HON. CHARLES EMORY SMITH. 

"We meet again the demand for independent, free, 
and unlimited coinage without regard to other nations. 
To this demand I now address myself What is free 
coinage? The standard silver dollar is now worth 
about fifty cents. Free coinage means that the govern- 
ment shall receive all the silver which may be pre- 
sented, and upon every fifty cents' worth put the 
stamp of one dollar. As nobody, however, expects it 
to be coined, it really means that the government shall 
issue its note for one dollar in exchange for fifty 
cents' worth of bullion, and that this note which the 
favored bullion owner gets for fifty cents' worth of 
his commodity shall be made a legal tender for one 



198 THE MONEY STANDAED 

dollar in current circulation. Now, what would be 
the result? It would be a forced circulation of a 
dollar worth one half its face. It would be the 
debasement of the unit of value, and so the violent 
disturbance of all values. It would be the destruc- 
tion of stability, and so the overthrow of confidence, 
security, and prosperity. 

Let me be entirely frank. I know the advocates 
of free coinage claim that their measure would raise 
(Silver to the standard of gold, or perhaps they would 
prefer to put it, reduce gold to the standard of silver 
— that, in a word, it would establish parity. They 
point to the fact that the silver or silver certificates 
already in circulation have been kept at par at the 
ratio of 16 to 1, notwithstanding a far different market 
ratio. This is true, because we have limited the coin- 
age or purchase, because we have maintained the 
gold reserve, because we have pledged the whole 
credit and power of the government to sustain parity. 
But when we enter upon unlimited coinage, under 
present conditions, we embark upon a new and danger- 
ous sea. The free silver champions contend that our 
silver policy has failed, because we haven't gone far 
enough, and they insist that free coinage would bridge 
the divergence and remove the disparity of the two 
metals. There is no other pretense upon which it 
can be defended for a single instant. If it does not 
establish the equivalence of gold and silver at the 
determined ratio it is rank repudiation and dishonor. 
It is the willful adoption of the debased standard 



THE MONEY STANDARD 199 

and the compulsory circulation of a depreciated 
dollar, with its robbery of labor, its unsettlemeut of 
ail values, its derangement of all finance and trade, 
and its incalculable wrong and dangers in every 
direction. 

But what possible hoj)e can there be, in the light 
of the facts already before us, that free coinage will 
re-establish parity ? It was claimed just as confi- 
dently that the Purchase Act of 1890 would do it. 
What was the fact ? Its first temporary effect was to 
raise silver so that the bullion value of a dollar 
which was 74 cents in 1890 advanced for a short 
time to 84 cents ; but it soon dropjDcd back to 72 
cents, and has been falling ever since. We were 
then buying pretty nearly the entire silver product 
of this country. It must be remembered, too, that 
India, the great sink of silver in the East, was still 
under free coinage. While we were coining or 
purchasing nearly $600,000,000 of silver India was 
coining over |G00,000,U00, and during all this time, 
and in spite of this great market, silver kept on fall- 
ing. India has since stopped her free coinage, and 
how, then, can we hope to do alone what the two to- 
gether could not do ? 

Do you realize what free coinage by the United 
States alone itivolves ? It involves one of two things 
— either the lifting up of the entire volume of silver 
in the world to the standard of gold, or else the 
dragging down of the United States to the single 
standard of silver. There is no possible escape from 



200 THE MONEY STAND AED 

one horn or the other of this dilemma. The visible 
stock of silver in the world is about $4,000,000,000. 
Europe has over $1,000,000,000. The product of 
the United States in 1893 was 60,000,000 ounces. 
The annual product of the world has grown from an 
average of 40,000,000 ounces, between 1860 and 1870, 
to an aggregate of 160,000,000 ounces. For the 
United States alone to enter upon free coinage means 
that we must stand ready to buy all of this vast stock 
that may be attracted by our open hand and open 
mint, and that, while it is now at a ratio of 32 to 1, 
we must undertake the stupendous and impossible 
task of lifting it to equivalence with gold at the ratio 
of 16 to 1. It means not only that we shall stimu- 
late and inflate our own product, but that Europe 
will dump its surplus silver on us. I know the silver 
extremists deny this truth. I know they allege that 
the silver of Europe is in use as coin and that it 
could not be sent here without a loss. But this answer 
will not bear examination, as a moment's considera- 
tion will show. 

Ever since bimetallism was abandoned Europe has 
been struggling for gold. With the adoption of in- 
dependent free coinage in this country that struggle 
would gain new force, because it would be notice that 
the re-establishment of bimetallism had been indefi- 
nitely postponed. The Bank of France has $250,- 
000,000 of silver, not in circulation, but locked up 
in its vaults. The Bank of Germanv has over 
$150,000,000. The Bank of Spain has about $50,- 




HON. CHAS. EMORY SMITH 
(Ex-Minister to Russia.) 




HO.N. LK\'L P. MOKTOxN. 



THE MONEY STANDARD 203 

000,000, the Bank of the Netherlands $35,000,000, 
and others varying amounts. There are over $450,- 
000,000 stored in nine banking houses. This silver 
is worth nothing to them beyond its bullion value. 
It serves as a part of the metallic reserve for their 
paj3er money ; but they could better sustain more 
paper on gold, and if they could make the substitu- 
tion by sending this silver to the United States and 
exchanging it for gold, why wouldn't they do it ? 
Let me give you commanding authority. Henry 
Cernuschi is the ablest champion in Europe of the 
restoration of silver and the recognized leader of the 
bimetallists. In his pamphlet on " The Great 
Metallic Powers " he says : "As soon as the coinage 
of silver by the United States was free, Europe 
would act toward the United States just as Germany 
acted toward France, so long as France coined silver. 
Euroj^e would demonetize large masses of silver and 
send them to Philadelphia to get them made into 
dollars, with which dollars she would get gold 
dollars despatched to her." And again : " Why 
is not the coinage of silver free in France? 
Because, were the coinage free, all the gold 
would emigrate, and France, deprived of gold, 
would no longer have a monetary medium, either 
with England, or with Germany, or with the 
United States. Very venturesome would be 
those who should recommend the United States 
of America to undertake single-handed what 
France will undertake only triple-handed." Wis© 



£04 THE MONEY STANDARD 

counsel and admonition from the greatest of the 
friends of silver ! 

Let me add another impressive warning. And in 
order to make it specific will you pardon a personal 
allusion, and a statement which I have never publicly- 
made before, and in making which at the present 
time I hoj^e I am not altogether indiscreet. In 1890 
when the bill for the free coinage of silver was pend- 
ing in the United States Seuate, I had the honor of 
being the American Minister at St. Petersburg. The 
E-ussian Minister of Finance was Mr. Vishnegradski, 
who died a few days since — a statesman of extra- 
ordinary capacity, and perhaps the ablest Finance 
Minister in Europe at the time. I had occasion one 
day to call upon him, and I found him with a copy 
of the American free coinage silver bill, then under 
debate in the Senate, lying open on the table before 
him. His first expressions revealed his profound in- 
terest in the subject. He had studied the details of 
the bill to the minutest particular. He did not hesi- 
tate to pronounce it a most remarkable measure, in- 
volving a most disastrous policy, which, as a friend of 
the United States and of safe finance, he hoped she 
would not undertake. He inquired carefully after 
its prospects, and then in earnest words came the 
pregnant climax, which, as others were involved, I 
shall not in this public declaration venture to repeat 
in as specific a form as he gave it in that more confi- 
dential talk. But he said in substance : " If this bill 
becomes a law the United States will expose herself 



THE MONEY STANDARD 205 

to dangers of which she has perhaps little idea ; there 
is a great deal of silver in Europe ; we have some in 
Kussia ; already the proposition has been made to me 
to join in a movement, in the event of the American 
adoption of free coinage, to unload a part of Europe's 
silver on the United States ; but I believe this measure 
and this action would bring calamity, and I hope the 
United States will make no such mistake." It was 
the clear vision and the weighty remonstrance of a 
statesman looking on with the truer perspective of 
distance, and speaking with direct personal knowl- 
edge of dangers which the silver extremists profess 
to scout and deride. 

With free coinage the surplus silver of the world 
would flow toward our shores as infallibly as the 
dropping apple seeks the ground. It would flow here 
because this would be its one great market at a price 
not offered anywhere else. Eealizing the danger of 
this deluge, some of the silver radicals have proposed 
to limit free coinage to the American product. But 
none of the free coinage bills has ever embraced that 
limitation. And if you tried it how could you do it ? 
With a temporary artificial and exaggerated price 
here, how could you prevent foreign silver from 
finding its way across our borders, as it has done in 
the past ? Besides, suppose it were possible to suc- 
ceed in such a restriction, that would not be free 
coinage at all. It would not lift silver in the 
markets of the world ; it would not remove the dis- 
parity between the two metals ; it would not. there- 



206 THE MONEY STANDAED 

fore^ carry the only condition upon which free coin- 
age could possibly be justified ; it would simply 
enable anybody who has fifty cents' worth of silver 
bullion to take it to the mint and have it stamped 
one hundred cents, or take it to the Treasury, which 
would issue its note for it and force you and me to 
receive it for a dollar. Are the American people 
ready for that amazing folly ? 

Free coinage, I repeat, means that we must be pre- 
pared to buy the silver of the world. What would 
be the effect ? Gold coinage would immediately stop. 
Who would bring gold to be coined when it was 
undervalued one half? We should pay for the great 
influx of domestic and foreign silver in notes redeem- 
able in coin. The notes would be presented and gold 
demanded. If gold were paid by the Treasury, how 
long under this great demand would the reserve last ? 
If gold were refused we should be instantly on the 
silver basis, and the Treasury notes and the whole 
circulation of the United States would fall to the 
silver level. Under such conditions gold and silver 
would not circulate side by side. Gold would go to 
a premium. Every dollar would be locked up or 
exported. The government, stripped of its gold, 
would be forced to pay its creditors in silver, and 
that payment would reduce us at once to the silver 
standard. There is thus, under free coinage, no 
escape from one of the two alternatives, either 
that we must by our action alone raise the silver 
of the world to the gold standard, which is mani- 



THE MONEY STANDARD 207 

festly impossible, or we must drop to the silver 
standard. 

This, then, being clear, we come to the next ques- 
tion. What does the silver standard mean and what 
would be its effect ? This question involves such 
broad considerations and such tremendous conse- 
quences that time will permit me to touch on only a 
few of them. The silver dollar is now intrinsically 
worth fifty cents. It passes for a dollar because, by 
limited coinage and full exchangeability, the gov- 
ernment has kept it at par with gold. Under free 
coinage it would be worth whatever the world should 
rate the silver in it as worth. It might be fifty 
cents ; it might be more ; it might be less. It would 
follow all the fluctuations of a varying commodity, 
going up with the demand and going down after the 
deluge. It would still be called a dollar, but only 
because the real dollar unit of value had been ex- 
pelled ; and it would be a dollar in fact just as much 
as if we were to lock up all the present yard-sticks 
and were to make a new unit of length consisting of 
a foot and a half, and were to assume that calling it 
a yard would make it a yard. If it takes ten yards 
of cloth now to make a robe, ten yards under the 
new unit would leave the costume decidedly decollete! 
Wage-earners might receive as many nominal dollars 
as before, but the purchasing power of the dollar 
would measurably be cut in two. The Mexican 
dollar contains more silver than the American dollar : 
y«t the American silver dollar will buy twice as 



208 THE MOXET STANDARD 

much in Mexico as the Mexican silver dollar. The 
American silver dollar is quoted in London at 100 
cents and the Mexican silver dollar at about 50 
cents. Why? Because Mexico has free silver 
coinage and we have not ; because Mexico is on the 
silver basis and we are not. But the free coinage 
advocates would put us there, and so put our dollar 
down to the level of the Mexican dollar. 

The serious menace of such a change would bring 
on a great financial convulsion, and its accomplish- 
ment would involve a complete economic revolution. 
It was the a^^prehension of going to the silver stand- 
ard that largely caused the monetary panic of 1893, 
and any real impending danger of such a catastrophe 
would produce a financial cataclysm that is appalling 
to contemplate. It would excite alarm at home and 
abroad ; it would tumble our American securities 
back upon us ; it would dry up the springs of credit, 
restrict loans, paralyze enterprise, cripple trade and 
industry, halt investments, and repeat on a larger 
scale the bitter experience of that disastrous crisis of 
two summers ago. Even if the silver standard pre- 
sented the advantages which some extremists profess 
to think, the pathway to it would be strewn with too 
many wrecks and darkened with too much sorrow 
and sadness to be prudently undertaken. 

But suppose, running these risks and making these 
sacrifices, we had plunged to the silver standard, 
what then ? Practical object lessons are more vivid 
and convincing than theoretical discussions. Let ua 



THE MONEY STANDARD 209 

take a few ol)ject lessons. The amount of deposits in 
the savings banks of the United States is |l,747,- 
961,280, and the number of depositors 4,777,687. 
The average to each dej)Ositor is $365.86. The silver 
standard means that on an average every one of these 
nearly five million people deposited |365, each dollar 
worth 100 cents in gold, and would draw out |365 
in silver, each worth 50 cents. The savings of the 
working people of Pennsylvania go largely into 
building and loan associations. Nevertheless, there 
are in this State 248,244 saving bank depositors, with 
an aggregate deposit of |66,025,821, and an average 
individual deposit of $265.97. The silver standaid 
means that every one of these 248,244 Pennsylva- 
nians put in 265 hard-earned 100-cent dollars, and 
would draw out 265 50-cent dollars. 

Pennsylvania has 1,239 building associations, 
with assets amounting to $103,943,364, and a total 
membership of 272,580. All of these members are, in 
their organized capacity, lenders, and each is in turn 
a borrower. Each is a capitalist, and belongs to the 
much-denounced " creditor class " to the extent of 
$381. These associations received last year $43,432,- 
686, and divided $12,933,970. The whole system 
depends on the value of the assets in the shape of 
mortgages, and collapses unless that is sustained. 
On the silver basis these 272,580 persons, all wage- 
earners, would find their $103,943,364 cut in two, 
and the only persons who would get any compen- 
sation would be the fraction of borrowers at that 



210 THE MONEY STANDAED 

particular time. Take another illustration. The 
aggregate pension disbursements last year were 
$140,772,163.78, and the number of j)ensioners 
969,544, of whom 754,382 are the gallant invalid 
veteran defenders of their country, and 215,162 
are the widows or orphans of Union soldiers. The 
payment to each pensioner thus averaged $144. 
The number of pensioners on the roll of the pen- 
sion office at Philadelphia is 57,749, and at Pitts- 
burg 45,774, a total of 103,523 — nearly a ninth of 
the whole number in the Union. Under the silver 
standard the $144 going on an average to each of 
these nearly million pensioners would be 50-cent 
dollars, Avorth 72 real dollars. 

Take still another and impressive illustration. 
On January 1st, 1894, the life insurance policies in 
this country numbered 7,505,817, representing insur- 
ance of $5,291,824,900, and assets of $919,310,131. 
Considering wealth and population together, at least 
an eighth of this insurance is held in Pennsylvania, 
or say 1,000,000 policies — sometimes more than one 
for the same person — representing $650,000,000 of 
insurance and $120,000,000 of assets. The average 
amount of a policy is $700, and so the great mass of 
policy-holders are persons of moderate means. The 
security for the ]3ayment of this vast insurance is 
two-fold : first, existing assets, either mortgages or 
shares and bonds, and their value or income would 
be cut in two by going to the silver basis ; second, 
fixed annual premium payments, and their purchash 



THE MONEY STANDARD 811 

ing power in investments would be halved, since the 
amount was fixed on the gold basis and would be 
paid on tlte silver basis. On life insurance assets 75 
per cent, are mortgages or shares and bonds, and 
this colossal contract for the future, involving in 
Pennsylvania alone nearly 1,000,000 policies and 
$650,000,000 of insurance, would, by the silver stand- 
ard, be depreciated one-half in value. 

There is yet another and momentous danger. 
The amount of American securities owned abroad is 
generally placed at about $2,000,000,000. Speaking 
in the House of Commons in 1893 of the volume of 
British investments outside of the United Kingdom 
Mr. Gladstone said: "One thousand million pounds 
would probably be an extremely low and inade- 
quate estimate. Two thousand millions — that is, 
in round numbers, ten thousand million dollars — 
or something even more than that, is very likely to 
be nearer the mark." Burdett's Official Intelli- 
gencer for 1894 places the aggregate of foreign secu- 
rities held by British investors, based on the income 
tax returns, at $3,819,035,000. The United States has 
one-half the railroads and telegrajohs of the world, 
and it has a fifth of the British foreign trade. It 
is, therefore, a reasonable presumption that some 
fraction between a fifth and a half of the British 
foreign holdings are American — some figure between 
$800,000,000 and $1,900,000,000. Add other Euro- 
pean holdings and the aggregate will reach $2,000,- 
000,000 or over, on which from $60,000,000 to 



213 THE MONEY STANDAED 

$100,000,000 are annually paid in dividends and 
interest. This amount is now paid in dollars, worth 
in London 100 cents. On the silver basis it would 
be i^aid in dollars, worth in London 50 cents. Under 
such circumstances, how long would it be before 
these securities would be jorecipitated uj^on our 
market with all the consequences of such a move- 
ment? 

The stock of the Pennsylvania Railroad aggre- 
gates $129,289,000. Of this amount forty-six per 
cent., or about $60,000,000, is held abroad. Imagine 
the effect of having even a half of this vast propor- 
tion or a quarter of all the shares of the Pennsylvania 
thrown on tlie market ! This would be inevitable 
unless the dividends were paid in gold, and to do 
that would require either doubling the amount set 
apart or halving the dividends. Not a few bonds are 
made specifically payable in gold. In every such 
case it would take just as much money to j^ay the 
premium on gold as would be available for the divi- 
dend or interest. The effect on all railroads may be » 
shown by a single illustration. The Illinois Central 
pays five per cent, dividends. This takes $2,500,000. 
Last year the road had $2,963,275 available, leaving 
a surplus of $463,275. Of the stock about forty per 
cent, is held abroad. To pay the foreign stock- 
holders requires $1,000,000. If they are paid in 
gold $2,000,000 would be required, and so the whole 
dividend must be cut down. If they are paid in 
silver the value abroad will be cut in two and the 



THE MONEY ST^^'\>AKD 213 

foreign holder will sell. How can such a situation 
fail to bring a crash ? 

These are a few illustrations of what ia"^]ated free 
coinage and the silver standard involve. But it is 
claimed that if we were on the silver basis we should 
enjo}'' great advantages in foreign commerce and 
command the trade of the silver countries. We 
should, indeed, 2>ut ourselves financially ui^on the 
level of Mexico, and China, and India, but with what 
result ? The imports of the gold standard countries 
amount to over $8,000,000,000 a year, and those of 
the silver standard countries to less than $1,000,- 
000,000. Tlie exports of the gold standard countries 
reach annually $7,000,000,000, and those of the silver 
standard countries only $1,000,000,000. AVhy should 
we abandon the advantages of the former in a struggle 
for the latter ? 

During the last fiscal year our exports to Europe 
amounted to $690,000,000, and our imports te 
$274,600,000. Here was a balance in our favor of 
$415,000,000, which was paid or credited to us ii! 
gold value. During the same time our exports tc 
the silver countries amounted to $42,000,000 and 
our imports to $170,000,000, Here was a balance 
against us of $128,000,000. We should continue 
to pay this sum in silver, or its equivalent, as we 
do now ; but why should we be so idiotic as to 
put ourselves on the silver basis in order that Europe 
may pay us $415,000,000 a year in silver values in- 
stead of gold values ? Why should we upset our 



214 THE MONEY STANDARD 

monetary medium with the great commercial nations, 
and subject our commerce to the incalculable tax and 
burden and depression of a constantly uncertain and 
fluctuating exchange ? 

We liear men t.alk loosely of the debtor class and 
the creditor class, and flippantly reason that so- 
called " cheap money " would help debtors at the 
expense of creditors. AVho are the debtors and 
who are tlie creditors ? The creditors are every 
depositor in a savings bank, every member of a 
Building Association, every pensioner, every holder 
of an insurance policy, every workingman who has 
saved anything out of his earnings and put it into 
institutions or investments, dependent upon public 
security and honesty. Borrowing requires credit. 
It is the well-ofl", not the poor, who borrow most. 
The borrowers will be found more on the stock- 
market than on the farm or in the workshop. If a 
man seeks loans for legitimate enterprise or needed 
development, he is most interested in maintaining 
the public credit and confidence, which makes easy 
terms and low rates. What he wants is not cheap 
money, but cheap loans. Repudiation is most costly 
to borrowers. It multiplies the risks and hardens 
the conditions. Depreciate the unit of value and 
you cheat every member of the industrial classes. 
Tlie great body of workingmen would be the worst 
sufferers. Prices on a silver basis would advance, 
because they would be paid in debased money, but 
the last thing to rise would be the wages of labor, 



THE MONEY STANDARD 215 

and the sons of toil, to whom the false appeal is most 
cunningly made, should be the most determined to 
resist and reject it. 

The depreciated currency, which is called '' cheap 
money," but which, in reality, is the de^irest, is the 
most insidious and deadly of all public perils. It 
deceives and deludes the unwary. It comes in at- 
tractive guise. It is, as has been said, like the cub 
of the lioness, described by the Greek poet, which 
was rashly taken by the hunter into liis house. 
When it was young it was fondled by the chiklren ; 
but when it grew and felt its strength it deluged the 
house with blood. There are those who unthink- 
ingly fondle this young financial folly ; but let it de- 
velop, and it will fill the country with sorrow and 
ruin. The dangers of the silver delusion are so 
clear that some of the extremists recoil from the 
abyss. They tell us they have not advoc^ated indp- 
pendent free coinage. I do not wonder that they 
shrink from their own conclusion. But their record 
confronts them. They have voted for free coinage. 
They have sustained and upheld those v»"ho voted for 
it. They have denounced those who did not accept 
it. Their argument means free silver coinage, or it 
means nothing. If they renounce the conclusion let 
them renounce the contention. 

INTERNATIONAL BIMETALLISM. 

What, then, is the true remedy ? To find the 
remedy we must find the cause. The fiee coinage 



216 THE MOJ^TEY STA^DAED 

extremists mistake the one, and so misapply the 
other. They begin wrong, argue wrong, and end 
wrong. They charge the fall of silver to the Act of 
1873, which is said to have demonetized it, and they 
say it has not been restored to its position because 
we have not done enough for it. But the Act of 
1873 had no more to do with the fall of silver .than 
the last eclipse of the moon. We hadn't any silver 
to demonetize. We had coined only 8,000,000 
silver dollars from the foundation of the govern- 
ment, and for a quarter of a century before 1873 
there hadn't been a dollar in circulation. As to 
our subsequent treatment of silver, I have shown 
that since 1873 we have done seventy-two times 
as much for the silver dollar as we did in all our 
previous history, and in spite of this silver kept on 
falling. 

What has caused the great monetary dislocation 
of the past twenty years? It was not the demone- 
tization of silver in the United States, but the over- 
throw of bimetallism in Europe. We had practi- 
cally no silver coinage, and our act had no effect. 
Europe had $1,000,000,000 of silver coinage, and 
her proscription of silver and the stoppage of her 
demand brought the derangement. For nearly two 
hundred years gold and silver had maintained a prac- 
tically steady ratio. The production of the t-wo 
metals had fluctuated in the most remarkable degree. 
During the first forty-five years of this century the 
output of silver enormously exceeded that of gold. 



THE MONEY STANDARD 317 

During the next twenty-five years the conditions 
were reversed, and the output of gold enormously 
exceeded that of silver. Within the quarter of a 
century following 1850 the mines of the world 
poured forth as much gold as during the entire pre- 
ceding three centuries and a half from the discovery 
of America by Columbus. 

Yet through these extraordinary changes in the 
relative quantity of gold and silver there was sub- 
stantially no change in their relative value. The 
steadying influence was the bimetallic system. Not 
all of the nations, indeed, had bimetallism. Eng- 
land had the gold standard ; Germany and Austria 
had the silver standard ; France and her associates 
of the Latin Union had the bimetallic standard ; and 
with Germany's silver balancing England's gold, 
France and the nations of the Latin Union served as 
what Walter Bagehot called "equalizing machines," 
and upheld the monetary equilibrium. Li 1871, 
two years before our much-abused and unimportant 
Act of 1873, Germany abandoned the silver and 
adopted the gold standard, and began to accumulate 
gold and sell her silver coin. AVithin seven years 
she sold 1150,000,000 worth, which flowed across the 
borders of France and Belgium. France and the 
Latin Union became alarmed and closed their mints 
to silver. Holland and other nations followed. The 
European outlet for silver was cut ofl". At the same 
time the imports of silver into India fell from 100,- 
000,000 rupees a year to 30,000,000. While the 



218 THE MONEY STAN"DARD 

demand was thus largely reduced the supply was 
largely increased. The annual production of silver 
was more than doubled just as this restriction of its 
use began, and it kept on until it was more than 
quadrupled. 

Here then is the cause of the monetary disturb- 
ance and here lies the remedy. The uniformity in 
the relative value of gold and silver prior to 1873 
was maintained by the bimetallic system ; it was 
broken by the general abandonment of that policy ; 
and it can only be reinstated by a general return. 
The restoration of silver must come through the 
concurrent action of the commercial nations. The 
enlightened opinion of the world recognizes these 
truths. The entire twelve members of the British 
Gold and Silver Commission agreed that it was the 
bimetallic system which preserved the stable ratio 
between gold and silver down to 1873. The six 
gold monometallist members agreed that bimetallism 
is practical and desirable for other nations though 
they hesitated to recommend it for England. The 
remaining six members declared themselves unre- 
servedly for bimetallism by international agreement. 
Germany, perceiving the great mistake she made in 
1871, has declared for an international conference. 
England, impelled by the distress among her pro- 
ducing classes, is advancing toward this policy. 
France has been for it from the beginning. The 
depression of Europe urges it. 

The palpable advantages of bimetallism are gain- 




MARK HANNA. 




HON. C. H. GROSVENOR. 



THE MONEY STANDARD 221 

ing ground for it every day. It broadens the mone- 
tary basis of credit and enlarges the stock of available 
sound money. It establishes monetary unity. It 
makes an approximately fixed par of exchange be- 
tween gold and silver countries. It promotes stability 
of values. It minimizes the evils of an appreciating 
metal on the one hand or of a depreciating metal on 
the other. The restoration of this system is the 
restoration of silver, and as its collapse was inter- 
national so its rehabilitation must be international. 

What is our true American policy ? We do not 
want to rest upon gold alone or upon silver alone. 
We want the joint use of the two metals upon con- 
ditions which will make every dollar as good as every 
other dollar in the pockets of the people, and in the 
markets of the world. We want the re-establisli- 
ment on a broader scale of that bimetallic system 
which for seventy years, through the severest strains, 
through periods when the silver output was three 
times as great in value as the gold, and through 
periods when the gold output was nearly five times 
as great as the silver, still kept them at a stable ratio 
and maintained the monetary equilibrium of the 
nations. To accomplish this result it is our duty to 
set our faces like adamant against the independent 
free coinage which would indefinitely postpone bi- 
metallism and simply jDlunge us upon the silver 
basis. We ought to learn from our own experience. 
We have done more to promote the growth in Europe 
of a demand for international bimetallism since w© 



223 THE MONEY STAKDAED 

stopped the purchase of silver in 1893 than we did 
during all the years when we were buying $600,- 
000,000 of silver. So long as we alone were carrying 
the burden Europe smiled and remained passive. 
When we had sense enough to stop Europe began to 
be aroused to the necessity of action. 

Let us emphasize that lesson. Let us say to 
Europe by our acts as well as by our words : " We 
desire international bimetallism ; we believe the 
business of the world will be better for the broadest 
use of both metals, but the initiative now rests with 
you." 

INCREASED DEMAND FOR GOLD. 

Bad as the present situation is, we can stand it as 
long as you can. We know the German agricultur- 
ists are crying out for relief. We know the Lan- 
cashire cotton-spinners are in distress and all th^e 
Indian exchanges are in confusion. We are ready 
to join you in an international agreement for the 
restoration of bimetallism ; but if you are not ready 
and if it is to be a struggle for gold we are going to 
meet you on that ground. Your London market 
was shaken when Mr. Vishnegradski boldly went in 
and bought $70,000,000 of gold to build up Russian 
credit. You were watchful and solicitous when 
Austria began to buy gold to rehabilitate her 
finances. You replaced that treasure by drawing on 
US. We know that France has wisely acquired 



THE MONEY STANDARD 223 

1200,000,000 of gold while we have foolishly parted 
with that aiuouiit. But we are richer and strouiier, 
more self-sustaining and more powei-ful in resources 
than the greatest of your nations; and if you are 
not j)repared for bimetallism and if it is to be a con- 
test for the accumulation of gold, then we give notice 
that we are going into the markets of the world to 
buy 1100,000,000 or $500,000,000 if necessary, in 
order to take care of ourselves. Such a notice 
would settle the question inside of six months. 
Europe would seek a conference and international 
agreement would follow. That is tlie solution of the 
question. Independent free coinage is the pathway 
to the single silver basis and to untold calamity. 
The restoration of bimetallism through international 
agreement is the pathway to honor, safety, and pros- 
perity. 

A DANGEROUS HERESY. 

I am not wishing to raise any personal issue ; but 
I desire from a profound sense of public duty, to 
resist a false and dangerous policy, and to sound a 
solemn warning against any attempt to commit our 
own people to a course of dishonor and disaster. It 
is not the first time there has been a proposal that 
we should falter in our devotion to honest money 
and true public faith. There was an hour when 
the delusion of inflated and depreciated paper seized 
upon some minds, as the delusion of inflated and 
depreciated silver seizes upon them now. It was 



224 THE MONEY STAXDAED 

kindred in motive and inspiration and peril. There 
were men then as now who were disposed to palter 
with it. But a distinguished leader of Republican- 
ism boldly met the heresy on the platform and the 
integrity and rectitude of our people were preserved. 
Let us confront and confound the present heresy 
and danger with the same determination and fidelity. 
Let us stand inflexibly for the honest money which 
lies at the foundation of all business security and in 
which every dollar, whether of gold or silver or 
paper, shall have full exchangeable equality with 
every other dollar. 

The admirable historical summary and argument 
of Mr. Smith may be fitly supplemented by the state- 
ment that the statistics of gold production empha- 
size all that he has said respecting the influences that 
affect the value of precious metals, and the difficulties 
and limitations of bimetallism. The production of 
gold has reached the enormous and unprecedented 
sum of $200,000,000 a year. The truth is the in- 
creased demand for gold in the richest and most ad- 
vanced nations has, according to the ancient irre- 
futable precepts and irrepealable laws of political 
economy, augmented the supply, so that it is only not 
improbable, but almost certain, that there will be of 
new gold added to the money of the world during the 
McKinley administration of four years one thousand 
million dollars. The peculiarity of the golden 
inflation, as was seen in California good times, is that 
it harms no one and helps everybody. It cheers, bii< 



THE MONEY STANDARD 225 

does not inebriate. It is wliolesonie inspiration and 
advancement, and there is no depression, no reaction. 
While we maintain the existing standard, resisting 
all extremists, disregarding factions, supporting with 
the credit of the nation the parity of the white and 
yellow money metals at the ratio familiar in our 
affairs, we shall follow the example of bimetallic 
France and close the mints firmly to the coinage of 
legal tender silver. We have all of that sort of 
money we can make good. There is to be no more 
free coinas^e of silver — that is fundamental. The 
tendency of the gold production is to the settlement 
of the silver questions according to the operation of 
the laws and economics of nature, leaving less and 
less to be determined by the legislative wisdom found 
in the government. We have only to stand solidly, 
as we are, for honesty and economy, to find the very 
soil of controversy removed, and our feet on the 
rocks that have resisted the billows of the oceans 
and the stormy skies for all the millenniums of which 
there are records of men. 



CHAPTER XI. 

WILLIAM McKINLEY AS A CAMPAIGNER. 

Speaking to fifteen millions of people — Making one thousand 
speeches— Constitution of iron — Wondrous vitality — Magnetic 
power — Excellent memory — Good listener — Making converts — 
Policy of Protection the hope of America. 

IN tlie past six years William McKiuley lias been 
constantly in battle. There has been no rest 
for him. It has been a continued campaign, 
in which he was the central figure. Beginning with 
the impossible contest for re-election to Congress in 
the gerrymandered district and continuing through 
the gubernatorial canvass of 1891, the Congressional 
campaign of 1892, the second fight for the governor- 
ship in 1893, the great Congressional contest of 1 894, 
the Ohio campaign of 1895, and the preliminary 
struggle of 1896, Major McKinley has been under 
an increasing strain. 

In that period he has probably spoken to more 
than fifteen millions of people, and shaken hands 
with a million and a half more, and made a thou- 
sand speeches, averaging an hour in length. Such 
was a task to make any man shrink, to test the nerve, 

226 



McKINLEY AS CAMPAIGNEE 237 

the physical endurance, and the vocal powers ; but 
Major McKinley went through it all without the 
least symptom of illness, though he was often wearied 
and worn. The ex-Governor has a constitution of 
iron, great recui)erative powers, the ability to sleep 
under uncomfortable conditions, to eat without care 
all sorts of food at all hours, and to digest it well, to 
drink waters that are ordinarily unhealthy without 
disastrous results. He has a surprising power, that 
comes to his rescue when it would seem as if he could 
do nothing more. He has a wondrous vitality, ex- 
cellent lungs, and great vocal power. Instead of 
breaking from constant use his voice seems to gain 
in strength and volume. 

It is interesting to note the way he begins a speech. 
The hall is always filled when he is booked to talk. 
It usually happens that it is difficult to get him into 
the hall, because of the crowds on the outside. The mo- 
ment he appears on a platform is a signal for prO' 
longed and vehement cheering. His face flushes a little 
and his eyes flash. He breathes quickly and compresses 
his lips, the lines around the mouth taking promi- 
nence. He brushes the hair back from his forehead 
with a nervous hand. Though outwardly composed, 
it appears to those who know him that he is a little 
anxious and a bit apprehensive, possibly almost 
alarmed. It is worthy of note when he steps on a 
platform and is greeted with enthusiasm, he bows low 
and waves his hands from side to side. The silk hat 
is always in the right hand, the brim firmly grip^Dcd. 



228 McKINLEY AS CAMPAIGNEE 

This is generally ruffled, for at the moment he forgets 
that it gets pressed. The bowing continues until the 
fury of the reception shows a sign of abatement. For 
the last four years almost every chairman of a meet- 
ing has introduced him as " the next President." To 
those who campaigned with him this became some- 
what of a joke, and there were bets made, the odds 
being always two to one that would be the introduc- 
tion. Now the chairman of a political meeting is 
generally a man of consequence in tlie neighborhood 
where the meeting is held. The opportunity of in- 
troducing such an orator as McKinley does not come 
often, and every chairman takes advantage of it. It 
is amusing to note the expression of McKinley's face 
when the introduction is prolonged. He frowns 
almost imperceptibly. Only one who has studied 
his countenance would notice it. There follows a 
look of weariness and then of impatience. He moves 
his feet a little and is restless. The strain is becoming 
painful to hear and the compliments dreary. They 
have been repeated probably twice before on the 
same day, and it is not often that anything of keen 
interest is said. When the inevitable " next Presi- 
dent" comes the Major's face is impassive. One 
would not know from his attitude that the refer- 
ence was to him. He does not seem to hate it, but 
would as leave it was omitted. 

Finally the chairman has come to the " Fellow cit- 
izens, I have the great pleasure, etc.," and McKinley 
steps forward and there are cheers. The speaker 



McKINLEY AS CA]\rPAIGXER 229 

clasps his hands behind him and bows right and 
left, to the pit and to the gallery. He moves his 
hand to still the enthusiasts and begins. He has 
discovered whether there are women present and 
then in a voice almost inaudible says, " Ladies and 
Gentlemen. My fellow citizens." The opening sen- 
tence is always a striking one. It is spoken in a low 
tone. Someone in the rear of the hall or at the 
edge of the crowd says " Louder ! " and there are 
many sounds of " Shu !" McKinley pays no atten- 
tion to the interruption except to wave one hand 
again. The voice of the orator becomes stronger 
and in ten sentences the words ring and reach every 
corner of the hall. The audience is leaning forward 
eager to catch every word. 

As he proceeds the Major warms. He gesticu- 
lates with both hands. He hits the air a little to 
emphasize a point and while his attitude is unstudied 
it is graceful. He owns the crowd now. It is hyp- 
notized by his eloquence. His hair grows damp 
with perspiration. Possibly a dark lock will stray 
over his forehead. It is imiDatiently brushed back 
and the sweep of a handkerchief cools the brow. 
His eyes are flashing fire. His breast heaves with 
the storm. His voice rushes from between his teeth 
and his lips are compressed as he finishes a word. 
His tones are 2')itched in a higher key. There is a 
metallic tone in the voice nnd yet it is musical. His 
bearing is impassioned. He has forgotten self and 
is regardless of everything but his sul)ject. One 



230 McKIN^LEY AS CAMPAIGNEE 

perceives that he is sincere in what he says. Every 
one sees that he is in deadly earnest, that this is no 
sham passion but the real thing. His words pierce 
the air defiantly and it is astonishing any creature 
can fail of conviction. The audience has grown in- 
tense in its interest. Many forget to cough or move. 
They are absorbed and their little selfishnesses are 
neglected. Every now and then some deep voice 
says " That is so !" or utters an "Amen." His com- 
panions who have heard him a hundred times are as 
interested as those who are hearing him for the first 
time. There is no resisting the earnestness of the 
orator, for all his soul aixl strength are in the speech. 
There will be nothing more serious in the sound of 
the last trumj^et. Some one may interrupt to ask a 
question, to try to " stump him," to catch him un- 
awares. McKinley is so discussing his subject that 
he fails to hear what is said. He stops and looks in 
the direction of the ground and then says shar^Dly, 
" What's that ?" The audience cries " Put him out." 
" No, no," says McKinley, " let him ask his question. 
Never put any one out." Probably the question is 
repeated. There is no hesitancy in the answer. 
The Major is ready. He turns a laugh on the ques- 
tioner by his flashing reply. He takes no mean 
advantage, but answers the question frankly. Gen- 
erally his reply is ei^igrammatic. It always is com- 
plete. 

Major McKinley has dramatic power and a mag- 
netism as a speaker. In describing scenes he pictures 



McKINLEY AS CAMPAIGNER 231 

realistically. The old soldiers are always im^jressed 
when he refers to them. Again and again he has 
brought tears to the eyes of the veterans when lie 
has told of the horrors of war. Old men sob like 
children and there is scarcely a dry eye in the multi- 
tude. There is a sincerity in his tributes to soldiers 
that is convincing. He has been there. He knows 
what he is talking about. Though of any one else 
his talk of the war might be called stagey, that criti- 
cism is never made of McKinley. No one would 
dare to do so, because it would be untrue. It would 
be impossible to find a speaker who has a better 
grasp of the subject, whether finance, protection, 
arbitration or foreign affairs. His talk is always 
illustrative and comprehensible and instructive. It 
is serious. There are no anecdotes to amuse. The 
orator does not convince by raising laughs, but rather 
by the indisputability of statements. It is a grave 
matter this campaigning with him. It is a mission, 
not a jest; an attempt to convert, not to please. 
Neither does he arouse ^^assion or opposition by 
assaults or trivial personalities. He assumes that 
those who disagree with him are sincere, as he is, and 
seeks to relieve them of their error. 

When he has finished, no matter how hot the day, 
McKinley puts on two overcoats, one light and the 
other of gray cloth, without sleeves, but with a cape. 
He buttons these around him to keep from catching 
cold. He thinks it well to let the perspiration flow 
freely for a while and then when he gets privacy 



232 MeKIXLEY AS CAMPAIGNER 

rubs himself well and puts on dry clothes. Exposed 
as he is in campaigns to all sorts and conditions of 
weather, he must have a care not to get a chill, and it 
is recorded that he was never incapacitated from 
speaking by bronchial troubles. 

Major McKinley remembers faces well. He gen- 
erally recalls a name, and when on a campaign he is 
certain to meet old friends, and the result is pleasing 
to both. He talks easily and freely with them and 
is entirely without assumption of superiority. He is 
approachable always. It is the custom when a cam- 
paign is made for the speaker to be assigned to the 
best hotel, or to go to some private house — it being 
preferable to lodge at a hotel. There is always a 
committee of reception of citizens who have done 
such good service to the party as deserves that honor, 
or whose position in the community makes it well to 
recognize them. Such a committee meets McKinley 
at the station and of course there is a band. When 
the campaign is in such a State as Ohio, the band in 
the smaller towns is a great institution. It is the 
pride of the community. Unfortunately the bands 
pay more attention to securing uniforms and keeping 
their instruments glistening than they do to har- 
mony. The result is sometimes not alluring. They 
often play the same tunes. An air has a sudden 
popularity and the band must j^lay it. The sounds 
they make and the repetition of them add to the 
labors of the campaigners. Major McKinley, who 
has a good ear for music, always displays great self- 



Mcivi:>LEY AS l'AMrAKJXi:U 233 

control. He never winces, no matter how hard the 
music tires him. Of course he would say nothing 
about it, unless some one would mention — say a 
citizen of the community who had supported the 
band — " It is a pretty good band." Tiie Major then 
smiles as if in assent, but he never commits liimself 
further. If he nods it is sufficient and the band ia 
held in higher esteem than ever. 

It is interesting in campaigning to observe how 
anxious McKinley is for information. When he 
comes to a town he listens to the talk of the politi- 
cians, to their statements of crop conditions, and of 
local affairs. Then information is drawn out regard- 
ing their industries. McKinley never cross-ques- 
tions his informers. He simply listens, and he is a 
mighty good listener. He says only wliat is neces- 
sary to keep the stream of talk flowing. At the 
meeting held immediately afterward it would be seen 
that the talk had been digested — that the orator had 
gained from the conversation much to use to give a 
touch of local color, and to make plain his general 
arguments. 

It has been the custom of those who choose to op- 
pose Major McKinley, or to belittle him, to say he 
can only make one speech. This is as far as possible 
from the trutli. If he is arguing on the tariff, 
in a campaign, he must do so. The basis of the 
speech is necessarily the same. The language and 
the illustrations are varied. He continually adds 
ideas and arguments, new epigrammatic phrases, and 



234 McKINLEY AS CAMPAIGNEE 

makes the theme constantly interesting, even to com- 
panions in the cam23aign. It was always instructive 
to notice how he develops thought — builds around it, 
and makes it effective. 

The Major never seemed to get tired, no matter 
how trying the toil. He outlasts those who accom- 
pany him. He is always the first up in the morning, 
though often the last to retire ; cheerful and patient, 
accepting what was set before him with gratitude. 
He seems somehow to have the knack of making 
everybody around him at home, and is accessible to 
everybody. 

When traveling on a train he would naturally 
meet the brakemen and conductors, and they seemed 
to feel that he was one of them. They approach him 
with friendly familiarity. They sit down by him, 
crowd the aisles to talk with him, and go away proud 
of having met the great protectionist. It is seldom 
that one of them fails to thank him for his services 
to the industries of the country, or to wish him good 
luck. When waiting for a train he talks with the 
baggage man or station agent, or with those who 
waited to see him off, always gaining knowledge of 
existing conditions, and it was the better because 
from those who gained it by personal experience. 
He knew what the workingmen thought as he did 
what the idea of the business men was. 

On one occasion, early in the campaign of 1893 
in Ohio, the Governor and the newspaper men who 
accompanied him came to a small, unprepossessing 



McKINLEY x\S CAMPAIGNER 235 

place. It was raining when the party arrived. The 
arrangements were poor, and there was only one car- 
riage, and the committee, to be with the Governor, 
got in with him. The other members of the party 
had to walk. 

The Governor happened to overhear some of his 
party complaining rather angrily of the treatment 
accorded them. Quietly calling them aside, he said : 
" Well, suppose you are dissatisfied ; the committee 
did the best it could. The hotel is the best in town ; 
we have been treated as well as the people could. 
Remember that they do not understand that what 
they have done is not pleasing. Remember that 
wherever we go we will get the best that the com- 
munity affords. AVhat more can you expect?" 
Thereafter there were no complaints, the lesson had 
been a wholesome one. Major McKinley, in cam- 
paigning, always had an eye to the feelings of the 
people. In one campaign the party came to a town 
on the border of Indiana. The people are religiously 
inclined. While waiting for the meeting there was 
nothing to do, so some of the party set about to 
amuse themselvesby playing "horse." McKinley sent 
for them, and told them the effect it was having, and 
they stopped. A campaign is a serious thing for 
him. Cordial and friendly, and even jovial at times, 
he would permit nothing that looked like levity 
touching serious things. Once something detained 
him while his party was on the stand waiting for the 
meeting to begin. One of the gubernatorial crowd 



236 McKINLEY AS CAMPAIGNER 

had a habit of pushing himself forward, securing the 
most conspicuous place. The members of the press 
assigned to follow the Governor in the camjDaign 
had noticed this, and the opportunity seemed to 
have arrived for a little fun at the exjjense of the 
pusher. A cry was started for him to speak. Soon 
the people on the stand caught on, and the cry 
increased in volume. Just then McKinley came, 
and as he stepped to the front he turned and asked 
sternly, "Who did this?" It w^as explained that 
the forward one had ex]3ressed a wish to S23eak, and 
that the opportunity seemed to have been afforded 
him, but the Major was not appeased. In campaigns 
there are many glee clubs. There is one at almost 
every meeting. The songs w^hich rang with his 
name never seemed to displease the Governor. He 
wauld beat time and nod his head, and his silk hat 
got hard treatment. 

In the campaign of 1893 in Ohio and that of 
1894, which the Governor made in sixteen States in 
a month and a half, he was always finding new con- 
verts to Republicanism, made so by Democratic in- 
competence and tariff tinkering. Never was he so 
pleased as when such a convert would grasp his hand 
and pledge his support to the Republican party. To 
McKinley the policy of protection is the hope of 
America, and everything that shows a growth in its 
favor delights him. The convert was always asked 
to give the point that converted him, and it w^as 
used by McKinley in his next speech. 




HON. GEORGE F. HOAR. 




HON, W. B. ALLISON. 



McKINLEY AS CAMPAIGNER 239 

li is iiard enough to deliver a sjDeecli. It is suf- 
Stjiently wearying to go through the muscular jDart 
of it ; it is trying on the nerves to be constantly keyed 
up to the point necessary to such speeches as Mc- 
Kinley makes ; but worse is the haud-sliaking that 
follows, which, if the speaker be popuhir — and of 
course McKinley suffered more through this than 
in any other way. He shook hands Avith at least four 
hundred people every day during the Ohio campaign 
of 1893. He -seemed to enjoy it, but it wore on him. 
It became necer;sary to stop often. The members of 
the audience would clamber on a platform and fairly 
mob the Governor in attem])ting to shake his hand. 
Sometimes a scheme was worked, but not often. A 
friend would stand behind the governor and thrust 
his hands under McKinley 's arms. The Governor 
would hold his at his side, and the friend take the 
cruel grip of those who in their enthusiasm forgot 
how strong they really were. After trying this once 
or twice McKinley declined to permit " such a fraud 
to be practiced." It was always hard to get McKin- 
ley to bed. He would get into a talk with friends 
after a meeting, and he would not dismiss them, for 
he was too polite. The only thing that could be done 
was to go to his room, open one's watch and say, 
" Governor, you have to get up at five, and it is now 
midnight." That sent the crowd awayi The most 
noticeable thing about McKinley as a campaigner is 
his indefatigability." He makes two speeches of an 
hour and a half each and two others of from five to 



I 



240 McKINLEY AS CAMPAIGNEE 

ten minutes, day in and day out. In his earnestness, 
his enthusiasm, his versatility, liis eloquence, his 
magnetic power over an audience, and his dramatic 
force, he stands unequaled. 



CHAPTEK XII. 
Mckinley's advice to boys. 

Tbe enterprising boy— Interviewing Major McKinley — ^Boys* own 
account of it — Painting up the town — Looks like Napoleon- 
Fatherly advice — An important question. 



A 



FEW weeks ago an errand-boy in the New 
York World became interesting through liis 
anxiety to become a great man, and to find 
out how to do it by talking with great men and gaining 
instruction with a view to his education, the man- 
aging editor liad a hapj^y thought that the boy 
might become an interviewer, and sent him, accom- 
panied by a reporter, to the most accessible of great 
men, Mr. Chauncey Depew. After the conversation 
it turned out there was no occasion for the reporter's 
notes or his literary skill. The memory of the boy 
was perfect, and he had a quaint, simple way of put- 
ting things that was attractive. The boy was a suc- 
cess, and he was sent to interview Major McKinley, 
and the result is a beautiful picture of the Repub- 
lican candidate in his home, and a talk from him 

that every boy in America should read many times, 

241 



248 McKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 

and that is worthy to go into the school-books as a 
marvel of manly talk to a boy. 

The boy went out to McKinley's home in Canton, 
O., from New York City, was received cordially, and 
the statesman gave more than a half hour of his time, 
Nvliile a half dozen politicians stood on the piazzs 
clamoring for admittance. 

The boy's report of his half hour with Mr. Mc- 
Kinley follows : 

" I have been down to Ohio to see Mr. McKinley, 
the big Kepublican. As I have visited many men 
wlio are great, and as Mr. McKinley seems to be the 
greatest of all at present, I wanted to see him bad, so 
I took a call on him at Canton, Ohio, the town he 
lives in. 

" When a man gets big like him he ought to be 
able to tell boys how to become great to, so I thought 
It would pay me to go down there and ask of him 
some advice on How a young boy can start in life and 
become a great man. 

" Canton isn't as big a town as New York, and 
everybody in the place knows Mr. McKinley and the 
family. 

" It isn't easy to ask Major McKinley things for 
tlie newspapers, I knew that before I started, so I 
found Mr. Boyle, his private secretary, and told him 
I was the boy reporter for the Sunday World, and all 
the boys wanted to hear about Mr. McKinley, and 
would he please fix it so I could see him. Mr. Boyle 
was a newspaper man and he knew all about it, so I 



]\TcKTXLEY'S ADYTCT: TO BOYS 2-13 

told him I didn't want to talk politics, and that I 
wanted to ask Mr. McKinlej how I or other boys 
could get to be as famous as he was. 

" Tiien Mr. Boyle laughed, and said that Major 
McKinley was a very busy man all the time, but as 
he liked boys awful well, I might call around to his 
house and see him in the morning. As I had come 
all the way from New York, and wanted to do so, so 
much. 

" Then I was glad. So when morning came I got 
up early and started for Mr. McKiuley's house, one 
thing struck me awfully funny on the road their it 
was that they were painting all the telegraph poles, 
and everything else in the town v^^hite and blue, they 
seemed tickled about something by the way they 
were slapping the paint all over the street, and I 
guess paint is cheap in Ohio, so I asked a man what 
they we painting up for, and he said they're getting 
ready to celebrate McKinley's nomination. 

" So I know everybody in Canton liked the big 
Kepublican, and I hurried on. His house is a 
pretty one, made of wood and painted white, on a fine 
broad street, and there wasn't any basements or steps, 
like we see in New York Houses. 

" It's a fine place to live in, and I'd like to live 
there myself. 

"I knew right away that it was where Mr. McKinley 
and his wife Mrs. McKinley lived, for Mr. Boyle had 
told me what it looked like, he said there were two 
big earns painted white standing in the big lawn in 



244 McKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 

front of the house. They weren't anything but two 
big flower-pots, as big as I am. 

" I went up to the door and pressed the button, and 
inquired as to see Mr. McKinley, its an electric bell, 
and I suppose it will be worn out soon, if there's as 
many callers come every day as come and wanted to 
see him as while I was there. 

*'A young man who was an other private secretary 
came to the door, Major McKinley has two private 
secretaries. 

" * Come right in,' says he and he took my card, 
and went into a room right by the door. I asked 
for Mr. Boyle, but the young man took my card to 
a large man, in the front room, and when he came 
out and said, 'step right in here and sit down.' I 
walked in, and there was a big man sitting in the 
corner. I knew him right off as soon as I seen him, 
and I sat there in a rocking chair, sizing him up 
and the room I w^as in. 

" It was Major McKinley. 

"I seen he had a round head with not much hair 
on the top, and I knew it was him, because he 
looked like the pictures of Napoleon at the elevated 
stations, which the newspaper artists make him look 
like. 

" He wore eye-glasses and a black coat, and had 
awful big eye-brows, and he didn't look like as if he 
was in a great hurry, and I hoped he'd talk to me a 
good deal. 

" He was at a little desk looking over some letters. 



MeKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 245 

" I liked Iiiin right off, and then I looked at the 
room. It was his library and he uses it as his office, 
it is very large with plenty of book shelves, which 
are full of his favorite authors, Grant, Lincoln and 
himself 

" Pictures were hanging on the walls of Grant, 
Lincoln, and a lot of other great men and also a 
large beautiful picture of his wife Mrs. McKinley 
and himself. 

"Then I looked at Mr. McKinley again, and I 
seemed to be getting almost afraid to talk to him for 
I thought he was such a big man, wise and great, but 
I thought to myself that there wasn't any use for me 
to come all the way from New York and not talk to 
him. 

" So I got my senses together and just then Mr. 
Boyle came down stairs and stepped over to the 
Major, and said right off that there was a boy there 
to see him. Mr. McKinley got right up from his 
chair and stared at me with a very pleasant smile on 
his face. 

" * this is Harry Wilsoja,' said Mr. Boyle, * who has 
come from New York to see you.' 

" ' Fm pleased to see you,' said Mr. McKinley, and 
he gave me his hand for to shake, and I liked him 
more than ever, because he acted as if he was real 
pleased to see me. 

" ' Sit down,' said he, and he pointed to my rocking 
chair, and then he F/at down in front of me in one of 
them chairs that whirl around like the Editor's chair. 



246 MeKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 

"And I said to him, *Mr. McKinley I am more 
than 2)leased to meet yon, as I think that not more 
than one of a thousand boys could see you and talk 
with you, and I'm proud.' 

" Then I told him at once what I had come for, be- 
cause I didn't want to keep him from his work, 
writing letters and such things. 

" ' Mr, McKinley,' I said, ' I come to ask you if 
you would give me some advice as to how a young 
boy i^n start in life and become a great man ; I 
thought you could tell me.' 

" I wondered what he was going to say, as I've 
asked a lot of big men like Chauncey Depew and 
Alderman Muh the same thing. He sat still for a 
moment holding his eye-glasses with his right hand, 
and pushing the black bead on the cord with his 
other hand. I saw he wears a gold ring on the left 
hand and a pair of great big cuff buttons, not link 
buttons, like the swells wear ; I guess his wife must 
have given them to him. 

" He thought a long time, and then talked very 
slowly, and his voice was deep. 

" 'Well,' he said, 'first a boy must be a good boy, 
honest, always do what is right, pay attention to what 
he is doing, and be a student ; he must go to school 
all he can, learn all his lessons, and he mustn't be 
afraid to study.' 

" Then I thought to myself what Mr. McKinley 
had said Avas perfectly right ; then I paused for a 
moment, thinking what I should ask him next. I 



McKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 2\1 

had never been far outside of New York before, and 
Canton looked like a very small town to nie, and I 
wondered if it was a good i)lace to make smart men in. 

" ' Mr. McKinlej,' I said, * will you please tell me 
do you think a boy has as much chance to study and 
make a great man out of himself in a small place 
like this as the boys in great cities like New York 
have V 

" That made him smile, but he said right off, ' A 
boy can make anything out of himself that he pleases, 
and he has just as much chance to do it in the 
country as in the city ; there are good colleges in 
small places, just the same as in New York, and a 
boy, if he wants to, can make what he will out of 
himself.' 

" He was beginning to get warmed up and was 
beginning to talk fast. He went on : 

" ' It don't make so much difference where It is or 
how great the part he plays, but it's the way he plays 
it. The other night I saw a play at the theatre called 
" The Rivals." Mr. Jefferson, and Mr. Drew and 
Mrs. Drew, and Mrs. Tabor, and Mr. Crane and 
Goodwin, the Holland brothers, and Francis Wilson, 
played the parts ; every one of them was great, and 
used to be stars, but they were content to take some 
parts that were very small in " The Rivals," but they 
played them just as well as if they had been big. 

" * That is the way with boys and men ; it isn't so 
much to be great as to do whatever you have to do 
well, that is being great.' 



248 McKII^LEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 

" I began to feel as if I was hearing a sermon, and 
tlie Major McKinley looked very sober. 

" Then he got in a good word for Canton. * It 
isn't such a small place,' he said, ' and it's a very 
nice town to live in. Some of the best farms are out 
this way. Before you go back to New York you 
had better take a good look around.' 

" But I wasn't through with him yet. I said, ' Mr. 
McKinley, would you please be so kind as to tell me 
when a boy should go into politics V 

" Then he laughed again and looked at his secre- 
tary, Mr. Boyle, who looks a good deal like Mr. 
McKinley. Mr. Boyle was going to say something, 
when Mr. McKinley suddenly sprang from his chair 
into the hall, and came in in a few moments with a 
lady leaning on his arm. 

" It was Mrs. McKinley, and she was very sweet- 
looking, and I was delighted to see her, and I think 
she would make folks comfortable if she lived in the 
AVhite House at Washington. 

" Mr. McKinley is very fond of her, I am sure, and 
he escorted her to the carriage, and she was going 
out for a morning ride, 

" Then he came back and sat down with a smile on 
his face. When he was about to begin to talk to me 
he was called away again, and stayed away a few 
moments and then came in again and sat down and 
then laughed, and began to ask me questions before 
T could ask him some more. 

" * How old are you ; how long have you been work- 



McKTXLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 219 

ing ?' I tlieii told him and lie wanted to know how 
long I had been reporting. I said ' eight months.' 

" He then said to me, ' Harry, I believe you must 
have a great deal of good advice by this time,' and 
the Major laughed. So did all the rest in the room. 

" I said ' If I could follow all I've been told I'd be 
a great man pretty quick.' 

" Mr. McKiuley is very fond of his mother, who is 
eighty-seven years old, and lives near him, so I said, 
* Can a boy neglect his mother and get along and be 
great, Mr. McKinley ?' 

" He looked very grave and sad, and then said : 

" ' Harry, a boy should always be good to his 
mother and do everything in the world he can and 
love her. He must comfort her, be kind and gentle 
to her, and not only do all he can to make her 
happy, but he should make opportunities to try and 
do everything he can do.' 

"That's just the Major McKinley 's words, because 
I wrote them down when I came out of the home. 

" * A boy cannot expect to succeed if he isn't good 
to his mother,' the Major says. ' A boy should do 
all the work for her because when the time comes 
that she has got to leave for a greater world than this 
and if he has done what is right towards her, all the 
time, then when the time comes for her to go he will 
never regret the good he has done towards her.' 

" Then I said ' I have done everything in the world 
[ can do for my motlier,' and then he said, 

" 'That's right, Harry, do all you can at all times,' 



250 McKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 

" Then I stoped for a moment and says ' If every 
boy would follow the advice which you have given 
me, he never will feel sorry for the good work he has 
done for her when the end comes.' 

"Then I stoped a moment and thought that Mr. 
McKinley hadn't told me when a boy should go into 
politics, and I said, 

" ' Mr. McKinley, will you tell me when a boy 
ought to study j^olitics.' 

" He then stoped a moment, and then said to me, 

" ' Harry, first a boy should study the History of 
his country, and learn all the political history of the 
country. He should learn what the leaders have 
done for their country, so that when the time comes 
for him to vote he will be able to do so intelligently.' 

" Then some more people came in to see him, and 
the Major McKinley went out into the hall again, 
and I knew he was in a hurry, so I said that I wished 
to ask one more thing. I remembered I had nearly 
forgotten one of the most important questions. 

"I then said after he had returned from outside 
of the hall, 'Mr. McKinley I have just one more 
question, and it is an important one.' 

" I then said ' would you tell me how you earned 
your first dollar ?' 

" He sank back in his chair and looked as if that 
wasn't what he expected me to ask him, then he put 
his hand up to the side of his head, as if to recall 
the years which had passed by, and then with a smile 
said : 



■^^(•KIXLFA'"8 ADYTCE TO BOYS 351 

"'Really I can't recall the first dollar that I 
earned,' he keeped on thinking, and I tried to make 
him think a little harder. 

"Then I said, 'did you have to saw wood, did you 
have to drive oxes all day long, or did you have to 
work in the field all day, can't you remember what 
you used to do to earn money.' 

"He then said to me, ' why Harry I did anything 
a boy would do around the house. When I was a 
boy money was very scarce, and you had to work 
hard for what little money you got. But I can't 
remember the first dollar. You have to ask me 
something easy,' 

" What kind of books should a boy who wants to 
be great read ?" 

" ' Ah ! now I have to refer you to my private sec- 
retary, he has a lecture which he sjDcaks on the 
stage that tells all that and much more.' 

" So then I knew my talk was over with him. I 
felt very sorry to say good-bye, but I said : 

" * Mr. McKinley, I want to thank you, for it was 
very good in you to stop to talk to a boy, and I am 
very grateful.' 

" ' And I am very glad that you came to see me,' 
says he. ' I'm always glad to talk with boys. I like 
them and like to be with them. What is there in 
all the world nicer than a boy, except a sweet young 
girl? Come again, Harry, and I hope you'll have 
the best of luck and do some good in the world with 
your work. Send me a paper.' 



253 McKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 

" Then we shook hands again, and Mr. Boyle went 
out on the porch with me, and there was a lot of big 
men — polictitians, I guess — and I think Mr. McKin- 
ley was very nice to talk to me and keep them wait- 
ing so long. 

" I guess all the boys who know Mr. McKinley 
like Mr. McKinley as well as he likes them, because 
the boys of Canton, O., have already formed a drum 
core. Its the first campaign club in the country, 
and the boys are very proud of it. I'd join if I 
lived in Canton. The boys all wear white suits and 
drill, and are going to march for McKinley. 

"Harry Wilson." 

Harry Wilson has beaten all the accomplished 
reporters, and his photograph of McKinley at home 
is perfect. It is valuable, for it is true all through, 
and the wholesome, serious, earnest, kindly, loving, 
genuine man, McKinley, stands revealed — symmetri- 
cal, strong, and genial. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE CONTRASTED CONDITIONS. 

Between Republican protection and prosperity and Democratic 
meddling, disorganizing industry and forcing hard times, 
displayed in speeches by McKinley in 1892 and in 1895 — A 
plea in Boston for protection and prosperity. 

GOVERNOR McKINLEY, on October 4th, 
1892, in American Hall, Boston, addressed 
the people, beginning then, as he might 
now, saying : 

" This year we have two great questions. The 
contention of the Republican party is for the indus- 
tries and the labor and the prosperity of the 
country. The second contention of the Republican 
party is for an honest currency with which to meas- 
ure the exchanges of the people." 

He proceeded to make a speech most pertinent to 
these times, and put to the front the leading ques- 
tions. His remarkably forcible speech is now just 
as it was reported for the press. We quote : 

" The Democratic contention, no matter what Mr. 
Hill may have said in his Brooklyn speech, no mat- 
ter what Mr. Cleveland may have said in his recent 

253 



254 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 

letter of acceptance — the contention of the Demo- 
cratic party is for free trade and for a debased, 
worthless currency. If this is disputed, the history 
of the most unfortunate Cleveland adminstration 
proves it. [Applause.] The leaders of the Demo- 
cratic party have been financially unsound for more 
than thirty years. [Applause.] This unsoundness 
has not always taken on the same form, but its effect 
has always been the same — to corrupt the currency 
of the country. You will remember its opposition 
to the greenback currency, its opposition to the 
national bank currency, its opposition to the resump- 
tion of specie payments, its declaration in favor of 
the inflation of the currency without limit in value 
and irredeemable. You will remember its declara- 
tion for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. 
These have been the positions of the Democratic 
party in every national contest for the past thirty 
years, one or the other, and driven from the one they 
have taken up the other. Their last was the free 
and unlimited coinage of silver. Driven by the 
party exigency, by the near approach of a Presiden- 
tial campaign, they abandoned the free and unlim- 
ited coinage of silver, put in nomination a candidate 
in opposition to the free and unlimited coinage of 
silver, and when they did that they had to break 
out in some other place. [Applause.] And so they 
declared in their platform of 1892 for the abolition 
of the ten per cent, tax on State bank circulation, 
the only object of such a declaration being to restore 




HON. BENJAMIN HARRISON. 




HON. K. PROCTOR. 



CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 257 

such State bauk circulation, and the ouly effect of 
such restoration would be the retirement of the 
national money of the country, 

" This is the worst form of financial unsoundness 
that has ever emanated from the Democratic leaders, 
and I purpose for a few minutes, and only a few 
minutes, to call the attention of this audience to what 
the return to State bank circulation means — means 
to every business in the country, means to every 
interest of the country, means to every wage-earner 
of the country, means to every dollar of invested 
capital in the country — a proposition to go away 
from the national bank and the greenback and the 
treasury note currency to the wildcat currency of 
thirty years ago. [Applause.] 

" You will remember that in 1866 the Congress 
of the United States imposed a tax on State banks. 
The purpose of that tax was to retire State bank 
circulation, and to substitute in its place national 
money, and it had the desired effect. State bank 
money went out and national currency came in. 
And we had to do it. We had a nation to save and 
we had to have national agencies to save it. State 
agencies would not do. 

" Now, it isproposed to go back to that, when we have 
got the best currency in the world. And I want to read 
you the condition of the banks of this country prior to 
1860. I have lying on this table the old Bank Note 
Detector^ which every business man had to have to 
know whether the money he was receiving was 



258 CONTEASTED CONDITIONS 

genuine or whether it was counterfeit. Here is the 
old document, dated the first day of December, 1859. 
Now, what does it show ? It shows that this country 
at that time had 1,590 State banks of issue, exclusive 
of what were called ' State banks and their branches ' 
— 1,590 of them, and the notes of but fifty of those 
banks were at par. The notes of the 1,540 other 
banks were at a discount. There was not a bank in 
the State of Massachusetts that was quoted at par in 
the city of Philadeljohia. There was not a note issued 
by any State bank in Ohio, or in any State bank in 
Pennsylvania, or any State bank in Illinois that was 
current at par outside of the jurisdiction and limits 
of the State. The money was fairly good within the 
State, but when you stepped across the State lines 
then the holder of that currency had to look out for 
the speculator and the shaver and stand a discount. 
And that was the kind of money with which we did 
the business of this country. And no man when he 
got some of that paper was certain that before morn- 
ing came the bank would not fail. [Laughter.] And 
then there were 890 broken, failed, and worthless 
banks, in addition to the 1,590, scattered throughout 
every State of the Union, whose notes had been put 
in circulation, had been taken by the people of this 
country, value given for such paper money, which 
proved to be worthless in the hands of the people, 
and of no more account than the paper upon which it 
was printed. The Republican party is against the re- 
turn to the State bank circulation. [Great apj)lause.] 



COXTHASTED CONDITIONS 25i) 

** Daniel AVebster, away back in 1832, said in this 
city, and I cannot do better than to quote his words, 
upon this very subject of State banks : 

" * These State banks, lying under no restraint from 
the General Government or any of its institutions, 
issued paper money corresponding to their own sense 
of their immediate interests and hopes of gain. . . . 
I believe, gentlemen, "the experiment" must go 
through — the experiment of State bank money. I 
believe that every part and every portion of our 
country will have a satisfactory test of what they call 
the " better currency." I believe we shall be blessed 
again with the currency of 1812, when money was 
the only uncurrent species of property. We have 
amidst all the distress that surrounds us men of 
power who condemn the national bank in every 
form, maintain the efficacy and efficiency of State 
banks for domestic exchange, and, amidst all the 
sufferings and terrors of " the experiment," cry out 
that they are establishing " a better currency." * The 
experiment,' says Mr. Webster — 'the experiment 
upon what ? The experiment of one man upon the 
happiness, the well-being, and, I may also say, upon 
the lives of 12,000,000 human beings '—63,000,000 
to-day is what the experiment would mean ; it was 
17,000,000 then — ' the experiment that found us in 
health, the experiment that found us with the best 
currency on the face of the earth, the same from the 
North to the South, from Boston to St. Louis, and 
possessing the unlimited confidence of foreign coun- 



260 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 

tries, and which leaves us crushed, ruined, without 
gain at home and without credit abroad. The Gov- 
ernment of the United States stands chargeable, in my 
opinion, with a gross dereliction from duty in leav- 
ing the currency of the country entirely at the mercy 
of others without seeking to exercise over it any con- 
trol whatever. The means of exercising this con- 
trol rests in the wisdom of Congress. ... It is a 
power that cannot be yielded to others with safety to 
the country and with credit to them. The Govern- 
ment may as well give up to the States the power of 
making j^eace or war, leave the twenty-six inde- 
pendent States to select their own foes, raise their 
own troops, and conclude their own terms of peace. 
It might as well leave the States to impose their 
own duties and regulate their own terms of trade and 
commerce as to give up control over the currency in 
which the whole nation is interested.' [Applause.] 

" That was the language of Daniel Webster in 1832, 
and every word of it applies to the situation to-day. 
It is proposed by the leaders of the Democratic party 
to give up the national currency, which is the best 
in the world, and go back to this unstable and unsat- 
isfactory and worthless currency which Mr. Webster 
characterized as unfit to do the business of this great 
country. We have to-day gold and silver and paper 
money, each the equal of the other — equal in debt- 
paying and in legal-tender power ; good not only at 
home, but good in every business corner of the 
world ; worth 100 cents on the dollar every week of 



CONTRASTED COXDITIONS 261 

every month of every year. [Applause.] Tliere is 
uot a man in this great audience who has a national 
bank note in his purse to-night who knows where 
that note was issued. He does not know the city or 
the town or the county or the State from whence it 
came. He does not know whether it was issued in 
Maine or whether it was issued in California, and he 
does not care [great applause], because it is good 
wherever it was issued ; because the government of 
the United States stands behind it [applause], and 
that government has for its security the bonds of the 
United States, which sell at a premium in every 
money centre of the world. [Kenewed a23plause.] 
Every dollar we have got, because the government 
stands behind it, is as good as every other dollar. 
There is one thing the people of this country have 
no business to trifle with, and that is the money of 
the country, which measures the products of your 
land and your labor, the products of your energy 
and your skill. [Applause.] That should be fixed 
and unalterable and unchangeable, and that is its 
situation to-day. The currency of this country 
should be as national as its flag. [Applause.] It 
should be as unsullied as the national conscience 
and as sound as the government itself. [Applause.] 
And there is not a business man or workingman, no 
matter to what political party he belongs, if he will 
honestly vote his convictions, who will not vote 
against the party that proposes to re-establish a sys- 
tem under which this country lost millions upon 



262 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 

millions of dollars. [Applause.] We have had all 
of the Confederate currency we want. [Loud cheers.] 
We are for United States currency in some form for 
all time in the future. [Applause.] And we are not 
only opposed to Confederate currency, but we are 
opposed to British political economy. We not only 
fight for our industries and our labor, that they may 
be prosperous and well paid, but we insist that when 
they have earned their money they shall be paid in 
a dollar worth one hundred cents. [Great cheer- 
ing.] When a workingman gives ten hours a day 
to his employer — ten full hours — he is entitled to 
be paid in a dollar worth full one hundred cents. 
[Applause.] Free trade shaves down his labor first, 
and then scales down his pay by rewarding him in 
a worthless and a depreciated State currency. [Ap- 
plause.] The one reduces his wages, and the other 
cheats him in the pay. [Applause.] And that is 
the Democratic platform of 1892. [Applause.] No 
man can escape it. Mr. Hill undertook to do it in 
his Brooklyn speech, but Mr. Hill undertook to do 
in that speech what the National Democratic Con- 
vention had declared by solemn vote it would not 
do. [Applause.] And then, besides, if I may be 
permitted to speak with the greatest respect of Mr. 
Hill and in perfectly parliamentary language, Mr. 
Hill is hardly in a position to make a platform for 
the Democratic party which the Democratic con- 
vention rejected when he himself was rejected by 
the same party. [Prolonged cheers.] He says it is 



CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 2G3 

true that protection is unconstitutional, but he is 
willing for the good of the country to take it in 
small quantities [great laughter], even of the un- 
constitutional article. He says protection is a fraud, 
but he is in favor of incidental protection — that is, 
he is in favor of an incidental fraud. A fraud by 
accident he does not object to. A fraud by a 
casualty he sees no objection to, or a fraud by inci- 
dent; but protection plain and simple, says Mr. 
Hill, although he tries to fix up a new platform, is 
a fraud upon the American people. And he says it 
is unconstitutional. Protection unconstitutional ? 
I know of but one constitution which it violates and 
that is the constitution of the Confederate States. 
[Long applause and cheers.] It is iu direct viola- 
tion of that instrument. But we are not operating 
under it. [Laughter.] That instrument went down 
before the resistless armies of Grant and Sherman 
and Sheridan [cheers], and the Constitution of 
Washington and Lincoln was sustained. [Applause.] 
And that is the Constitution under which we are 
operating to-day — the Constitution of "Washington 
and of Lincoln and of Grant. [Cheers.] 

" Unconstitutional ? That is the last objection of 
the Democratic leaders. [Laughter.] It usually 
precedes immediate acquiescence and surrender. 
[Laughter.] It comes after they have tried every 
other objection. They do not seem to know that the 
man who made the first Protective Tariff law we ever 
bad, in X789 — the men who made the first Protective 



264 CONTEASTED CONDITIOlSrS 

Tariff law— made tlie Constitution of the United 
StateSe [Loud cheers.] James Madison, a member 
of the Constitutional Convention, and who afterward 
became President of the United States, reported that 
bill to Congress. It passed the House of Represen- 
tatives, composed as that body was largely of members 
of the Constitutional Convention ; it passed that body 
unanimously, and passed the Senate of the United 
States by a vote of five to one, and in that body were 
a large number of men who made the Constitution 
itself. And that Protective Tariff law was finally 
signed by George Washington, the President of the 
United States, [Applause.] 

" That is not all. I have always liked the fathers, 
for they had a blunt, plain way of saying what they 
meant. They put into that first protective law what 
has never appeared in a Protective Tariff law since. 
They put into the preamble of that law exactly what 
they meant. What did they say ? They said, ' We 
levy these duties to raise money to pay the debts of 
the government; to provide money for the expenses 
of the United States, and to encourage and j^rotect 
manufiictures in the United States.' [Enthusiastic 
cheering.] There is not a historic Democrat, from 
Jefferson down to Cleveland — excluding Mr. Cleve- 
land — who lias not always sustained the constitution- 
ality of a Protective Tariff. Jefferson sustained it, as 
did Jackson and Madison and Wright and Benton 
and Buchanan, and dozens and dozens more of names 
c<rell known in the political history of our country, 



CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 265 

Is Grover Cleveland a better constitutional lawyer 
than Thomas Jefferson ? [Shouts of * No.'] Is 
Adlai Stevenson a better constitutional lawyer than 
James Madison ? [Laughter.] Is Governor Rus- 
sell a safer expounder of the Constitution than Daniel 
Webster ? [Applause and cries of ' No.'] Is Henry 
Watterson safer than Henry Clay? [Shouts of 
' No.'] Are all of them combined as safe to be relied 
upon as the Supreme Court of the United States, 
which, over and over again, has sustained the consti- 
tutionality of a Protective Tariff? [Applause and 
cries of ' No.'] Have Mr. Cleveland and the other 
Democratic leaders forgotten that within twelve 
months the Supreme Court of the United States has 
put its judicial sanction upon the tariff law of 1890? 
[Applause.] And if that is not a Protective Tariff 
law [great laughter] it is the result of accident and 
not design. [Long applause and cheers.] 

Protective tariffs are not only constitutional, but 
in our own ex|)erience they have proved wholesome to 
the great body of the American people. [A|)plause.] 
No nation in the world has done so well as ours ; 
not one. Match it if you can under any circum- 
stances the world over. [Applause.] We are the 
youngest nation on the face of the earth, and yet we 
have reached the first rank in mining, in manu- 
facture, and in agriculture of all the nations the 
wide world over. [Applause.] But they said your 
protective tariffs, and especially the law of 1890, 
would build a Chinese wall around this country, and 



266 CONTEASTED CONDITIONS 

that you could neither get out or come in. [Laugh- 
ter.] That is what they said in 1890. That is what 
they said in 1891. And if results did not overtake 
predictions, the Democratic party would be the gTeat- 
est party of the world. [Laughter.] If that party 
could be only unembarrassed by facts ! [Great ap- 
plause.] 

Keep us out of the home market ? I said in Tre- 
mont Temple a little more than a year ago that 
this Protective Tarijff law would vindicate itself. 
You believed it then — you know it now. [Loud 
applause and cheers.] Shut us out from our for- 
eign trade? Why, the last twelve months, under 
the operation of the new law, we have had more 
foreign trade than we ever had in any twelve months 
of our national history. [Applause.] Our foreign 
trade amounted last year to $1,890,000,000, a point 
never reached before in the history of the United 
States. [Great applause.] They called the Fifty- 
first Congress, which was Re^^ublican — the Congress 
over which the Czar presided [tremendous cheer- 
i'^g] — ^l^^y called it a billion-dollar Congress. 
More than that — it was a billion-and-eight- 
hundred-and-ninety-million-dollar Congress. We 
sent more American products to Europe in the 
last twelve months in volume and in value than 
we ever sent in any twelve months since the govern- 
ment began. One billion and thirty million dollars 
of American products went to Europe, $849,000,000 
of European products came to the United States, and 



OOXTTJASTKl) CONDITION'S 267 

Europe paid us |240,000,000 in gold to settle the 
l:)alauce of trade in favor of the American j)roducer. 
[Applause.] We never had so good a business at 
home as we have got now, and we never had so large 
a business abroad as we have got now. And I 
noticed in the Evening Pod, or the 3Iorning Post, of 
the city of Boston, a leading, double-leaded editorial, 
telling how prosperous the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts and the city of Boston are to-day. I don't 
know what the politics of that paper are [great 
laughter], and I don't care, because there are no 
politics iu facts. [Cheers.] Ah ! but they say, if 
you had not the Protective Tariff things would be a 
little cheaper. Well, whether a thing is cheap or 
whether it is dear depends upon what we can earn 
by our daily labor. Free trade cheapens the product 
by cheapening the producer. Protection cheapens 
the product by elevating the producer. [Applause.] 
Under free trade the trader is the master and the 
producer the slave. Protection is but the law of 
nature, the law of self-preservation, of self-develop- 
ment, of securing the highest and best destiny of the 
race of man. [Cheers.] 

" Grover Cleveland says, strangely, in his letter : 
* We must consult morals as well as maxims.' 
[Laughter.] I suppose he means by that that pro- 
tection is immoral. Immoral ! Why, if protection 
builds up and elevates 03,000,000 of people, the 
influence of those 63,000,000 of people elevates the 
rest of the world. [Great applause.] We cannot 



268 CONTEASTED COKDITIOKS 

take a step in the pathway of progress without bene- 
fiting mankind everywhere. Well, they say, ' Buy 
where you can buy the cheapest.' That is one of 
their maxims. Buy where you can buy the cheap- 
est. Of course, that applies to labor as to everything 
else. Let me give you a maxim that is a thousand 
times better than that, and it is a protection maxim : 
' Buy where you can pay the easiest.' [Great ap- 
plause.] And that spot of earth is where laboi- 
wins its highest rewards. What has this Protective 
Tariff law of 1890 done ? Why, it has increased 
factories all over the United States. It has built 
new ones, it has enlarged old ones. It has started 
the pearl button business in this country. [Laugh- 
ter.] We used to buy our buttons made in Austria 
by the prison labor of Austria. We are buying our 
buttons to-day made by the free labor of America. 
[Applause.] We had 11 button factories before 
1890; w^e have 85 now. We employed 500 men 
before 1890, at from $12 to $15 a week ; we employ 
8,000 men now, at from $18 to $35 a week. 
[Cheers.] The value of the output before 1890 was 
less than $500,000; it is $3,500,000 to-day. We 
are making some of the finest cotton and woolen 
goods that can be made anywhere in the world. 
You are making them in Massachusetts. They 
are being made all over New England. Why, 
we are making lace in Texas, the home of 
Mills. [Laughter.] We are making velvets and 
plushes in Philadelphia. When I was hers, a 



CONTRASTED CUNDJTIOXS 269 

little over a year ago, the complaint in every 
Democratic newspaper was that the tariff law of 
1890 had put the tariff up on plushes, the garment 
that the poor girl and woman wore. Well, it is true 
that we did put the tariff up on plushes, but the 
price has come down. [Applause.] And we are 
making them in this country, giving employment to 
hundreds and thousands of workingmen. And we 
are making tin plate in the United States. [Loud 
cheers.] We have made in the last fifteen months 
13,000,000 pounds. Ah ! but they say, you import the 
black sheets from abroad. Well, we have, some, but 
we have made 5,000,000 of tin plates from black sheets 
made in American steel mills by American working- 
men. [Applause.] Supposing we did import some 
of the steel sheets and do the tinning — that gives em- 
ployment to labor. But what they said was that we 
could not tin the sheet steel. That was the objection 
originally to this tin plate tariff. Why, I saw within 
the last three weeks, in the State of Indiana, in the 
city of Ellwood, one of the most magnificent tin 
plate mills in the world, manned by American work- 
ingmen, and I saw them make tin plate from the 
rolled steel down to the bright and shining plate — 
plate as bright and shining as was ever made in 
Swansea, Wales. [Applause.] Cannot make tin 
plate? Why, we can make anything we want to 
make. [Great cheering.] We could not make it 
under a Democratic revenue tariff, of course. [Ap- 
plause.^ 



270 CONTRASTED COXDITIOXS 

*' Well, but they said this tariff law of 1890 was 
going to increase the price of the necessaries of life, 
and was going to diminish the wages of labor. It 
has done neither. The necessities of life are cheaper 
to-day than they were eighteen months ago. The 
commodities that go into the household of every man 
and woman are cheaper to-day than they were 
eighteen months asfo, and the price of labor has in- 
creased to some extent, as shown by the report of the 
Senate Committee, consisting of three Republicans 
and two Democrats, as shown by the reports of the 
Commissioners of Labor of Indiana, of Massachusetts, 
of Michigan, and of the State of New York. [Ap- 
plause.] These reports came so thick and fast that 
they confused the leaders of the Democi-atic party, 
and they have resorted to extraordinary proceedings 
to break their force. Tliey have gone into the courts. 
They are persecuting poor Peck. [Laughter.] The 
whole National Committee is on his back. 

" We are just now two years, day after to-morrow, 
from the passage of this law of 1890. We were just 
two years in the national campaign of 1844 from the 
passage of the protective law of 1842. Mr. Polk 
got in under false pretenses that the Democratic 
party would not destroy the tariff. When he got in 
his party did destroy it. Look out for false prophe- 
siers. Men must stand on their platforms made by 
their national })arties. [Applause.] No man is 
higher than his party. Every man must obey the 
law of the convention that nominates him. [Ap- 



CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 271 

plause.] Aye, did you remember that historical 
incident? The trial of this year is between the 
Republicans and the Democrats on the line of pro- 
tection and free trade. They can't get away from it 
if they would. They mean free trade and nothing 
else. Ah ! listen. Let me just read one more word 
that Mr. Webster says. He describes how the mills 
of Lowell have been closed up ; in your own State, 
way back in 1848, how 800 men vvere thrown out of 
employment, how 3,000 in another place in your 
own State, how 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 in the State of 
Pennsylvania were dismissed from employment 
under the tariff of 1846, and then he characterizes 
this free trade. He says : ' The imports of iron since 
the new tariff are enormous, . . . and here the in- 
crease is in articles of the highest manufacture — that 
is, articles in which the greatest quantity of labor is 
incorporated, for there seems to be in this policy ' — 
listen to his words — * there seems to be in this policy 
a bloodhound scent to follow labor and to run it down 
and to seize it, and strangle it wherever it may be 
found.' " 

RESULT OF THE REPUBLICAN DEFEAT IN 1892. 

Set forth by Mr. McKinle.y in Hartford, Conn., April 9th, and Spring- 
field, 6., September 10th, 1895. 

[Hartford, April 9th.] 

" We resumed specie payments in 1879. From 
that time up to March 4th, 1893, the yearly average 
of greenback notes presented for redemption wsls 



273 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 

about $3,000,000. In 1892 the amount o-f green- 
backs presented for redemption was $5,352,243, 
and during the same year $3,773,600 in treasury 
notes were presented for redemption. In 1893, 
after the change in administration, there were 
presented for redemption $55,319,125 in green- 
backs and $46,781,220 in treasury notes, or a 
total of $102,100,345. Thus there was presented 
for redemption in the first year paper money 
aggregating nearly three times the volume of all 
that had been presented in the previous fourteen 
years. What was the occasion for this sudden de- 
sire of the holders of greenbacks and treasury notes 
to have them redeemed in gold ? Was it not a lack 
of confidence? Was it not from the known fact 
that the proposed legislation of the Democratic party 
would tend to destroy our prosperity at home, and 
probably result in a failure to collect enough money 
to meet the current expenses and obligations of the 
government ? 

" Was it not from the fact that the revenues had 
fallen short in meeting the expenditures of the gov- 
ernment by $117,000,000, and that the treasury had 
been compelled to borrow that vast sum, and has 
since been compelled to borrow $62,000,000 more ? 
During the previous years the people had been so 
strong in their faith in the government that they 
were satisfied with any kind of money issued by the 
government. The government had been able to pro- 
duce such a financial equilibrium that the people 




GAEBET A. HOBAT ' 




SENATOR WILLIAM E. MASON. 



CO^^TRASTED CON^DITIONS 275 

were utterly iiidiftereiit whether they were given 
gold, silver, or paper. Even during Mr. Cleveland's 
first administration, confidence was unshaken because 
there was no Democratic Congress to disturb Repub- 
lican legislation or overthrow or disturb the sound 
financial policy, which was established by the Ke- 
publican party. There had been no change in the 
status of the greenbacks or the treasury notes ; there 
had been no financial legislation, except the repeal 
of the purchase clause of the Sherman Act which 
simply stopped the buying of silver. 

" It was the same government. There had been 
simply a change of administration of the affairs of 
the government. One pledged to a new policy had 
been given power and hence came the universal lack 
of confidence ; not a lack of confidence in the people, 
or in our institutions, but a lack of confidence in 
those charged with the administration to conduct 
the government with safety and success. From 
March 4th, 1881, down to March 4th, 1893, thanks 
to the Funding Act of Hayes, Sherman, and Win- 
dom, the government of the United States had been 
calling in its bonds and paying them off from the 
surplus revenue in the treasury. Instead of the 
people demanding gold for their greenbacks the 
government was engaged in paying off the bonded 
indebtedness of the government in gold. The same 
work went on during Mr. Cleveland's first adminis- 
tration, but not without opposition from him. It 
will be " embered that the public debt which his 



276 C0NTBA8TEI) COXDITIOKS 

administration paid off was paid from the revenues 
•of the government collected under Republican legis- 
lation. President Harrison paid off $296,000,000 
of the public debt and turned over to Mr. Cleve- 
land's administration |124,000,000 surpluF. There 
was not a moment from the inauguration of Presi- 
dent Harrison to the second inausfuration of Mr. 
Cleveland in which we did not collect for every day 
of every year sufficient revennes to pay. every demand 
and obligation of the government. 

" President Harrison's administration was a bond- 
paying, not a bond-issuing administration. The 
latest bond issue of President Cleveland, of $63,- 
000,000, was made in secret with the gi-eat financiers 
of Europe, through their agents in the United States. 
It was made out of the sight of the public ; made 
upon terms which were harsh and humiliating to the 
great government of the United States ; made at a 
lower price than the existing bonds of the govern- 
ment were being sold in the open markets of this 
country and the great commercial centres of the 
world, and made at a higher rate of interest than that 
paid on bonds sold six months before. The bonds 
under contract to-day are selling in advance of the 
price received by the government, both in this 
country and in England. The President sold the 
bonds at 104J, the syndicate sold tliem at 112J, a 
gain of 71, and the subscribers to the syndicate are 
now selling their bonds at from 116 to 120. 

" It was a hard bargain for the government, but it 



CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 377 

is not the only hard bargain we have had to bear. 
There have been a long series of them. The hard- 
bargain business commenced in November, 1892, and 
the bargains have been getting harder and harder 
ever since. Out of it all, however, we get some faint 
ray of satisfaction. It must be gratifying to every 
American citizen to observe that the people of our 
own country and of England both place a higher 
estimate upon the bonds of the United States than do 
those who are temporarily administering its govern- 
ments We ought to realize by this time that we 
should not do our work nor make our loans in 
Europe. Let us place what options we have with 
our own capitalists, and our orders with our own 
manufacturers, who, in the past, have been always 
abundantly able to meet every need and demand o^ 
the government and of the people. 

" The people have before them in the near future a 
greater and broader contest to wage, which will give 
the control of the government, as I believe, back to the 
Republican party. Until then we can do nothing 
but wait, as patiently as we can, and submit to the 
inevitable, hard as it is. 

" If anybody thinks that our wage-earners, our 
farmers, our trades-people, and the great masses of 
our countrymen, in common with them, are going to 
be satisfied permanently with the adjustment of their 
wages and prices, business and markets, to the present 
Democratic standard, they will very soon discover 
their fatal error. 



278 CONTEASTED COXDITIOXS 

" The people believe in the industrial policy which 
promotes, not retards, American enterprises, and dig- 
nifies, not degrades, American labor, and they will 
take power away from any party that stands in the 
way of the success of that policy. [Applause.] They 
believe in protection and reciprocity, and will give 
power to the party which wisely and fearlessly main- 
tains them, and will take power away from the party 
which has weakened or destroyed them. They be- 
lieve that we should produce our own sugar, make 
our own tin plate, and Ave mean to do both. They 
believe we should do all our other work at home 
without being forced to pay honest labor starvation 
wages. [Great applause.] They do not propose to 
give up permanently anything they have gained in 
the industrial vforld in the last thirty years, and 
they would rather hold it by retaining a Protective 
Tariff than to hold it by reducing wages below the 
true American standard. [Prolonged applause.] 

" We want, above all, to be Americans, in the 
truest and best sense ; and why should not Ameri- 
cans legislate for themselves? Whose country is 
this, anyhow ? [Tremendous applause and laughter.] 
We want neither European policies engrafted into 
our laws, nor European conditions forced upon our 
people; and we will have neither the one nor the 
other. It is often said that we want enough money 
to meet the needs of business, but just now the thing 
we need most is business itself, and rest assured, the 
more business we do the more money we will have." 



CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 270 

Mr. Miliiei', of Plainfield— " Amen." 

" We know just what we want, for we have had it 
before. [Apphiuse.] We know when we lost it, 
and how we lost it [laughter] ; and knowing this, we 
know just how to get it back again. [Renewed 
laughter ; applause.] 

*' Here is a case were knowledge is power ; and I 
have never known the people quite so eager to vote 
with their new information and recent business ex- 
perience to guide them. Rest assured when at length 
they do have an opportunity they will vote back into 
power that great party of protection which encom- 
passes in its legislation and policies the good of all 
the section and of all the people of the whole 
country. [Tremendous applause.] And that policy 
will come back to stay. 

" What we want in this country is a general re- 
sumption of business. We want the restoration of 
prosperity and confidence which we enjoyed before 
the change. Business at home will bring it, and it 
will bring good money, too, in abundance, and neither 
will come in any other way. You will not restore 
active business and good wages by a policy which 
transplants any part of our established business to 
Europe. No matter what kind of a currency we 
have it will not rekindle idle furnaces and employ 
idle men so long as we go abroad for our products 
which can be made at home because of the cheaper 
labor prevailing there. If we do our work at home 
our labor at home will be employed, and the wages 



280 CON"TEASTED CONDITIO^^S 

paid at home will be spent at home. This is the 
philosophy of protection, and it cannot be abandoned, 
amended or abated." 

[Springfield, 0., September 10th, 1895.] 

"My friends, there is one objection to the law, if 
there were no others, which must make its perma- 
nency impossible. It fails to raise the needed reve- 
nues for the daily expenses of the government. 
That would condemn it in the judgment of the 
American people whatever differing views they 
might have on the question of protection and fi-ee 
trade. The law from the date of its enactment to 
the present time — and it is now a year old — has not 
raised enough money from customs duties and inter- 
nal revenue combined to meet the necessary expenses 
of the government. The result has been a monthly 
deficiency. No law like that can be approved by 
the American people, for they j)r6fer Protective 
Tariffs to an increased and increasing bonded in- 
debtedness, and they would rather have a safe bal- 
ance in the treasury than a deficiency, and even a 
surplus, to a tainted public credit. 

" The operation of that law in respect to its reve- 
nues alone, independent of any other consideration, 
is vitally important in this discussion. It is worth 
while to know from official sources the revenue-rais- 
ing power, both of the law of 1890 and that of 1894. 
The people themselves know from their own experi- 
ence the difference between the two laws in respect 



CONTEASTED CONDITION'S 281 

to their own incomes and the general business of the 
country. It is unjustly charged that the R,e[iublican 
law of 1890 was incapable of supplying the needed 
revenues for the government, and that the deficien- 
cies in the treasury, which have occurred since the 
incoming Cleveland administration, were directly 
traceable to it. The Republican tariff law went 
into effect in October, 1890. The receipts under it 
for the first nine months, commencing October 1st, 

1890, to July 1st, 1891, were : From customs, $153,- 
287,831.47 ; from internal revenue, $106,436,500.01 ; 
tlie receipts from miscellaneous sources were $22,- 
118,356.21. The total receipts for that period were 
$281,842,687.69. The expenditures for that period 
of nine montlis, from October 1st, 1890, to July 1st, 

1891, were $280,710,748.34. The receipts, there- 
fore, exceeded the expenditures by $1,131,939.35. 
There was no deficiency up to this time. The re- 
ceipts under the Kepublican law of 1890, from July 
1st, 1891, to July 1st, 1892, were : From customs, 
$177,452,964.15; from internal revenue, $153,971,- 
072.57 ; the receipts from miscellaneous sources were 
$23,513,747.52 ; total receipts, $354,937,784.24. 
The total expenditures of the government for that 
year were $345,023,330.58, showing an excess of 
receipts over expenditures of $9,914,453.66. There 
was no deficiency up to this time. The receipts 
under the Republican tariff law for the fiscal year 
commencing July 1st, 1892, and ending July 
Xst, 1893, were: 'From customs, $203,355,016.73; 



282 CONTEASTED CONDITIONS 

from internal revenue, $161,027,623.93 ; the receipts 
from miscellaneous sources were, $21,436,988.12 ; 
total receipts for fiscal year of 1893, $385,819,628.- 
78. The total expenditures for that year were $383,- 
477,954.49, an excess of receipts over expenditures 
of $2,341,674.29. There was no deficiency up to 
this time. 

" Now, in that year, 1893, on March 4th, the 
present Democratic administration came into jiower, 
pledged to reverse the protective policy of the gov- 
ernment, which had existed for more than thirty 
years. Then there were distrust and consternation 
in every business circle. No business man knew 
what to do, for he could not predict what the party in 
power would do. Business colla]3sed. Panic and fail- 
ures followed. Then the receipts commenced to fall 
off, as I will show you. The receipts from July 1st, 
1893, to July 1st, 1894, during all of which period 
the Cleveland administration was in control of every 
branch of the government, were : From customs, 
$131,818,530.62; from internal revenue, $147,111,- 
232.81 ; the receipts from miscellaneous sources were 
$18,792,255.82 ; total receipts $297,722,019.25. 
The total expenditures during that period were 
$367,525,279.83. Here occurs the first deficiency. 
Here is the first time that the receipts fell short of 
the expenditures of the government, the deficiency 
being$69,803,260.58. Is it any wonder that there was 
a deficiency when we consider the condition of panic, 
poverty, and business paralysis which prevailed at that 



CONTRASTED CONDITION'S 283 

time and which immediately followed the restoration 
to full power of the Democratic party ? The law con- 
tinued in operation until August, 1894, and for the 
months of July and August, 1894, the receipts from 
customs were: |26,828,o95.47 ; from internal rev- 
enue, $25,252,094.89 ; the receipts from miscel- 
laneous sources were $2,715,971.13 ; total receipts, 
$54,796,661.49. The total expenditures for those 
two months were $68,305,219.38, a deficiency of 
$13,508,557.89. On August 28th, 1894, the Brice- 
Gorman Act went into operation. The receipts 
under that law from September 1st, 1894, to September 
1st, 1895, were : From customs, $161,391,367.76 ; 
from internal revenue, $115,877,954.01 ; the receipts 
from miscellaneous sources were $15,089,503.98; 
total receipts for that year, $292,358,825.75. The 
expenditures during this first year were $358,953,- 
315.23, an excess of expenditures over receipts for 
the first year of this Democratic Tariff Act of $Q6,- 
594,489.48. During the first year, under the Brice- 
Gorman law, the receij)ts from customs and internal 
revenue were $276,269,321.77. During the first 
fiscal year, under the Republican Tariff law, receipts 
from customs and internal revenue were $331,424,- 
036.72, a difference in favor of the Republican law 
of $55,000,000. Under the Republican law sugar 
was free; under the Democratic law sugar is taxed. 
Even in the last fiscal year when the Republican law 
was in operation, with universal distress throughout 
the country, there was more money collected from 



284 CONTEASTED CONDITIONS 

customs duties and internal revenue than was col- 
lected during the first year under tlie Democratic 
Brice-Gorman Tariff law. 

"The statement of the condition of the United 
States Treasury, on the 31st day of August 1895, 
shows an excess of expenditures over receipts for the 
month of August of |3,693,103.30, 

" Durins: the first nine months of the Tariff" law of 
1890 the receipts from customs and internal revenue 
equaled within $17,000,000 the total receipts from 
customs and internal revenue of twelve months un- 
der the Brice-Gorman law. The average monthly 
receipts from customs and internal revenue, under 
the Bepublican law, for the first nine months, was 
over $28,000,000, and under the Brice-Gorman law 
was $33,000,000. 

" The average monthly receipts from customs duties 
during the operation of the Bepublican Tariff law 
were $17,066,774.67 ; the average monthly receipts 
from customs duties under the Democratic Tariff law 
of 1894 were $13,167,533.63— a difference in favor 
of the Republican law of $3,899,241.04 per month. 
One thino; must not be for2;otten — that at no time 
froin the passage of the Republican Tariff law of 
1890 down to the close of Presiden' Harrison's ad- 
ministration did that law fail to raise all the revenue 
needed to meet every expense of the general gov- 
ernment, and during no part of tliat period did the 
gold reserve fiill below $100,000,000. The revenue- 
raising power of the Bepublican Tariff Itiw wrjs only 



CONTRASTED ^0^^"DTTION■S 1^^> 

crippled and impaired after tlic country liad })lace(l 
in power a full Democratic administration 2)ledged to 
overthrow it. 

" It is loudly ^^^oclaimed through the Democratic 
press that prosperity has come. I sincerely hope 
that it has. Whatever prosperity we have has been 
a long time coming, and after nearly three years of 
business depression, a ruinous panic, and a painful 
and widespread suffering among the people, I pray 
that Tve may be at the dawn of better times and of 
enduring prosperity. I have believed it would come, 
in some measure, with every successive Kepublican 
victory. I have urged for two years past that the 
election of a Republican Congress would strip the 
Democratic party of power to further cripple the 
enterprises of the country, and w^ould be the begin- 
ning of a return of confidence, and that general and 
permanent prosperity could only come when the 
Democratic party was voted out of power in every 
branch of the national government, and the Repub- 
lican party voted in, pledged to repeal their destruc- 
tive and un-American legislation, which has so 
sei-iously impaired the prosperity of the people and 
the revenues and credit of the government. 

" It is a most significant fact, however, that the 
activity in business we have now is chiefly confined 
to those branches of industry which the Democi-atic 
party was forced to leave with some protection, 
notably, iron and steel. There is no substantial im- 
provement in those branches of domestic industry 



286 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 

Yv'here the lower duties, or no duties of the Demo- 
cratic tariff, have sharpened and increased foreign 
competition. These industries are still lifeless ; and 
if not lifeless are unsatisfactory and unprofitable, 
both to capital and labor. 

"There is a studied eifort in cei-tain quarters to 
show that the apparent 23rosperity tliroughout the 
country is the result of Democratic tariff legislation. 
I do not think that those who assert this honestly and 
sincerely believe it. It is worth remembering, and 
"can never be forgotten, that there was no revival of 
business, no return of confidence or gleam of hope in 
business circles until the elections of 1894, which, by 
uni^recedented majorities, gave the 2:>opular branch 
of Congress to the Republican party, and took away 
from the Democratic party the power to do further 
harm to the industries of the country and the occu- 
pations of the people. This w^as the aim, meaning, 
and purpose of tliat vote. With the near and certain 
return of the Republican party to full possession of 
power in the United States, comes naturally and 
logically increased faith in the country and an assur- 
ance to business men that for years to come they will 
have rest and relief from Democratic incompetency 
in the management of the industrial and financial 
affairs of the government. Whatever prosperity w^e 
are having (and just how much nobody seems to know) 
and with all hoping for the best, and hoping that it 
may stay and increase, and yet all breathless with sus- 
pense, is in spite of Democratic legislation, and not be- 



CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 287 

cause of it. You would suppose in reading some of the 
Democratic newspapers and Democratic literature of 
the country that there has been a wonderful increase 
of wages, and the Democratic leaders are claiming it 
as the direct result of Democratic tariff legislation. It 
is true there has been an increase in wages in some 
branches of industry, but a careful analysis will show 
that wherever the increase has been had, it has been 
in those departments of industry where protection 
was not wholly withdrawn or the least withdrawn, 
or where the home markets are secure from foreign 
competition; and where there is the most protec- 
tion there will be found the best wages. Consider- 
ing the condition in which the country has been for 
two years and a half, any amount of work resumed, 
no matter how little; any increase in the demand 
for labor, no matter how insignificant, would mean 
more and better wages. For two years and a half 
wages were not only abnormally low, but employ- 
ment was so scarce and em^^loyes so plenty that they 
could be had upon any terms and at any price. It 
was not a question of wage ; it was a question of 
work ; and men, rather than accept charity, and in 
order that they might give their families even scanty 
support, were ready to work at any price and at 
any employment. It must be remembered also 
that in the fewest branches of industry, if any, the 
wage scale has been restored to what it was in 1892, 
The increase of wages in 1895, much as it may be 
and gratifying as it is, does not equal the decrease of 



288 CONTEASTP]D CONDITIONS 

wages from 1892 to 1895 ; and there is yet a vast 
difference, as every workingnian realizes, between the 
price paid labor now and the price paid labor before 
the Democratic party took control, in March, 1893. 
This difference represents much, very much, to the 
workingmen of the country, and deprives many fire- 
sides of the comforts they enjoyed before 1893. 
Moreover, not only are the wages less now than in 
1892, but a vast number of men employed then are 
out of employment now. I do not propose to make 
comparisons between the wages paid labor now and 
the wages paid labor prior to 1893. That is unnec- 
essary. Every man who labors in this country 
knows whether he is employed now as satisfactorily 
and steadily as then, and whether he is paid as well 
now as he was when Republican policies' were in 
operation during Kepublican administrations. Every 
workingman knows what his pay-roll is now, and 
knows what his pay-roll was then ; and he knows it 
better than anybody can tell him ; and he knows 
better than anybody else the exact measure of differ- 
ence between the wages he receives now and the 
wages he received then. Nor is he in doubt as to 
the cause of this difference. He knows when he lost 
it and how he lost it ; and he v/ill vote at every 
opportunity in opposition to the pai'ty whose policy 
he believes produced it. This subject, therefore, can 
well be left with the laboring men of the country. 

" No one can observe the shrinkage of the wool pro- 
duction in the United States without being pro- 



CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 389 

fbundly impressed witli the injustice and criiiK of 
tliat part of the tariff law of 1894, which places wool 
upon the free list. Among the heaviest losses since 
1893 are those of Pennsylvania, which has fallen 
from 9,823,296 pounds to 5,899,867 pounds ; Texas, 
from 30,341,857 i)Oundsto 22,669,809 pounds ; AVest 
Virginia, from 4,627,887 pounds to 2,149,393 pounds ; 
Ohio, from 21,893,625 pounds to 18,534,610 pounds ; 
Michigan, from 16,370,536 pounds to 12,140,524 
pounds; California, from 26,808,444 pounds to 23,- 
153,956 pounds; and New York, from 9,328,300 
pounds to 6,250,392 pounds. The total product of 
the United States for 1893 was 348,538,138 pounds. 
In 1894, 325,210,712 jDounds, and in 1895, 294,296,- 
726 pounds. It is no wonder that the wool-growers 
of Ohio, in their convention at Columbus, last 
Wednesday, September 4th, unanimously adopted 
ihe following resolution : 

" ' Resolved, That the singling out of wool among 
«jo-called raw materials for sacrifice by the late Con- 
gress, while the " less important ones were cared for 
and protected, was an outrage upon agriculture, in- 
volving far greater evils than 2:)arty perfidy and party 
dishonor," and should be resented at the polls and 
elsewhere in every proper way/ 

" Mr. Brice will not be long in discovering that the 
farmers of the State of Ohio do not accept the law 
of the trusts and combinations as the final settlement 
of this great economic question. This subject can 
well be left with the intelligent farmers of Ohio. 



290 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 

They will have the opportunity at the coming elec- 
tion to directly commend or condemn our junior 
Senator in striking down one of their greatest in- 
dustries and chief sources of revenue. They will no-t 
forget that our candidate for Senator, ex-Governor 
Foraker, is opposed to free wool, but favors full and 
just protection to this most important industry." 

THE TWO PARTIES ON SILVER. 

The two skeleton maps show lai- more impressively 
than any array of figures could how the two parties 
stand on the question of free-silver coinage and honest 
money. On the Republican map all the States in 
which the Republican party is for free coinage, and 
also all the States in which it is doubtful on the sub- 
ject and has dodged or straddled it, are shaded 
The figures on each State show the number of elec- 
toral votes to which it is entitled, the delegates in 
National Convention being double that number. At 
a glance it is seen that the battle has been fought 
and won in all the great States of the North and 
West as far as the western line of the Dakotas and 
Kansas, and also in Oregon, Wyoming, and Wash- 
ington, and that Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, 
iron and coal-producing States, have broken through 
the centre of the South, while West Virginia and 
South Carolina have also joined the right side. 

But the Southern States are not needed to elect a 
President. The solid body of Northern States be- 




SENATOR CUSHMAN K. DAVIS. 




SENATOR HENRY C. LODtiJL 



CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 203 

tween the Atlantic and the western border of the 
J)akotas and Kansas, now all Republican, including 
Missouri, West Virginia, and Kentucky, are of one 
mind on the silver question. They cast, including 
Wyoming, 302 electoral votes, or more than two- 
thirds of the wliole, without any from the South or 
the Pacific Coast. In all these States the Republi- 
cans had at the last election a plurality, and in. all 
except Kentucky, Missouri, and Nebraska, which 
have thirty-eight votes, it had a clear majority over 
Democrats, Populists, and Silver men added together. 
The Democratic map presents a vast dark body 
with a few white spots. The States that have de- 
clared against free-silver coinage are white — namely, 
the eleven Eastern States, Minnesota, Michigan, and 
South Dakota. The States which have not yet de- 
clared or have evaded the question are half shaded — 
namely, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Louisiana. 
All the other States are fully shaded, the Democratic 
party in each of these States having declared in con- 
vention or by choice of delegates for free-silver 
coinage. Including all the undecided and doubtful, 
the anti-silver Democrats might muster over a third 
of the delegates in Convention, but far short of a 
majority. No man of practical sense can look on 
the map and imagine that the almost solid Democ- 
racy of the West and South is going to yield its pas- 
sionately-cherished opinions to the small fraction of 
the party at the East. 



394 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 

The figures do not quite tell the whole story. For 
generations the seat of power in the Democratic 
party, its home and its citadel, has been the South. 
The Democrats of the North and West have been a 
subject race, from boyhood educated to obey the dic- 
tation of Southern leaders, to accept and fight for 
their theories, and to take without flinching the 
popular disfavor and the annual beating which sup- 
port of such theories involved in most Northern 
States. It is past concej^tion that a Northern or 
Eastern Democrat should hope to defy and resist the 
power which has ruled the party for more than half 
a century. The great body of its electoral votes has 
always come from the South, far more than half its 
votes in Congress, nearly all of its experienced men 
and practiced leaders in either House. But the 
home and citadel of the Republican party has always 
been the free North, originally the Eastern and Cen- 
tral States, between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, 
including later their many children of the West. In 
that region the convictions of the Republican party 
are formed, its electoral votes are secured, and most 
of its votes in Congress. The opinions of the East 
and Central North are as certain to shape the action 
of the Republican as the opinions of the South are 
to sliaj^e the action of the Democratic party. 

Let business men throughout the country contrast 
these two pictures, and it will not take them long to 
judge which party they can trust in any question of 
money or finance. The ideas of the South are those 



CONTRASTED CONDITION'S 295 

of the plantation. The Republican ^arty is of 
necessity, as it ever has been, the instrument by 
which the millions of wage-earners and of business 
men have defended and promoted their interests. 
The North tests every question of money by the 
needs of the wage-earners and the business men. 
For more than thirty years they have been perpetu- 
ally assailed and often imperilled by the theories 
and crazy notions of the Democratic party, never 
more unreasoning or more dangerous than now, 
when it has gone mad over free coinage of silver. 
To intrust power to such a l)arty was the height of 
folly in 1892, when its destructive capacity had not 
been tested. To-day it would be for wage-earners 
and business men an act of impossible madness. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SOME ♦VIEWS ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS. 

Humorous speeches— The feeder of Great Britain— A leap in the 
dark— Give the officials scope— Importance of agriculture- 
Arbitration — Respect and retrospect— Let England take care 
of herself. 

T T will be interesting to quote a few paragraphs 
I from the humorous speeches made by Governor 
^ McKinley. In support of the tariff commis- 
sion in 1882 he aroused the attention of the country, 
and indicated to old politicians that a new force was 
arising in national politics, and that it was well to 
watch the career of William McKinley. In the 
House he said then : 

" Who has demanded a tariff for revenue only, 
such as is advocated by our friends on the other 
side ? What portion of our citizens ? What part 
of our population ? Not the agriculturist ; not the 
laborer; not the mechanic; not the manufacturer; 
not a petition before us, to my knowledge, ask- 
ing for an adjustment of tariff rates to a revenue 
basis. England wants it, demands it — not for our 
good, but hers; for she is more anxious to main- 

296 



PUBLIC QUESTIONS 297 

tain lier old position of supremacy than she is to pro- 
mote the interests and welfare of the people of this 
republic, and a great party in this country voices her 
interests. Our tariffs interfere with her profits. 
They keep at home what she wants. We are inde- 
pendent of her ; not she of us. She Avould have 
America the feeder of Great Britain, or, as Lord 
Sheffield put it, she would be 'the monopoly of our 
consumption and the carriage of our produce.' She 
would manufacture for us, and permit us to raise 
wheat and corn for' her. We are satisfied to do the 
latter, but unwilling to concede to her the monopoly 
of the former. 

" Manufacturers, farmers, laboring men, indeed all 
the industrial classes in the United States, are sever- 
ally and jointly interested in the maintenance of the 
present or a better tariff law which shall recognize in 
all its force the protection of American producers and 
American productions. Our first duty is to our own 
citizens. 

" Free trade may be suitable to Great Britain and 
its peculiar social and political structure, but it has 
no place in this republic, where classes are unknown, 
and where caste has long since been banished ; where 
equality is a rule ; where labor is dignified and hon- 
orable ; where education and improvement are the 
individual striving of every citizen, no matter what 
may be the accident of his birth, or the poverty of 
ills early surroundings. Here the mechanic of to-day 
Is the manufacturer of a few years hence. Under 



298 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 

such conditions, free trade can have no abiding place 
here. We are doing very well ; no other nation has 
done better, or makes a better showing in the world's 
balance sheet. We ought to be satisfied with the 
progress thus far made, and contented with our out- 
look for the future. We know what we have done 
and what we can do under the policy of protection. 
We have had some experience with a revenue tariff, 
which neither inspires hope, nor courage, nor confi- 
dence. Our own history condemns the policy we 
oppose, and it is the best vindication of the policy 
which we advocate. It needs no other. It furnished 
us in part the money to prosecute the war for the 
Union to a successful termination ; it has assisted 
largely in furnishing the revenue to meet our great 
public expenditures and diminish with unparalleled 
rapidity our great national debt ; it has contributed 
in securing to us an unexampled credit ; it has de- 
veloped the resources of the country and quickened 
the energies of our people ; it has made us what the 
nation should be, independent and self-reliant ; it has 
made us industrious in peace, and secured us inde- 
pendence in war ; and we find ourselves in the begin- 
ning of the second century of the republic without a 
superior in industrial arts, without an equal in com- 
mercial prosperity,with a sound financial system, with 
an overflowing treasury, blest at home and at peace 
with all mankind. Shall we reverse the policy which 
has rew^arded us with such magnificent results ? Shall 
we abandon the policy which pursued for twenty 



PUBLIC QUESTIONS 399 

years, has produced such unparalleled growth and 
prosperity ?" 

The Morrison tariff bill, wliich proposed a hori- 
zontal reduction of the Act of 1883, was under dis- 
cussion in the House on April 30th, 1884, and in 
closing his speech in opi30sition. Representative 
McKinley said in conclusion : 

" Every one of the leading industries of this 
country will be injuriously affected by this proposed 
change, and no man can predict the extent of it. The 
producers of cottons and woolens, of iron, steel, and 
ghxss, must suffer disastrously if this bill is enacted 
into ]aw ; and the proprietors of these establishments 
are neither robbers nor highwaymen, as the free- 
traders love to characterize them. They have been 
real benefactors, and while some of them liave grown 
opulent, in the main they do not represent the rich 
classes of the country. Their entire capital is in 
active employment. Many of them are large bor- 
rowers. Your proposed action will affect the values 
of their plants, unless except for the purposes em- 
ployed, will diminish the value of their invested 
capital, will decrease their sales and the ability of 
their customers to buy, and in many cases result in 
total overthrow and bankruptcy. You can do this, 
if you will. You have the power in this House to 
accomplish this great wrong ; but let me beg you to 
pause before you commence the work of destroying 
a great economic system under which the country 
has grown and prospered far in advance of every 



300 PUBLIC QUESTIOI^S 

other nation of the world. A system established b}* 
tlie founders of the government, recognized by the first 
Congress which ever sat and deliberated in council 
in this nation, sanctioned in the second Act ever 
passed by Congress, upheld by our greatest states- 
men, living or dead, vindicated by great results and 
justified by all our experience, achieving industrial 
triumphs without a parallel in the world's history. 
Its maintenance is yet essential to our progress and 
prosperity. The step proposed is a grave one. No 
man on this floor can determine its consequences or 
predict its results. 

" It is a leap in the dark. No interest is press- 
ing it. No national necessity demands it. No 
true American wants it. If it is a party neces- 
sity to enforce Democratic doctrines and disci- 
pline a little segment of the party, you can afford 
to wait, or clear your decks of mutineers in some 
other way : let the ship be saved, and punish your 
insubordinate associates without endangering great 
interests temporarily confided to your care. The 
interests of this great people are higher and greater 
than the ambitions or interests of any party. The 
free-traders have already demonstrated that they are 
in control of the Democratic party, and they are a 
large majority of that political organization ; but 
they are -happily in the minority in this country. 
They may dictate the policy here by party caucus, 
they may disturb the business of the country while 
yet in power, but they Avill not, under the policy 



PUBLIC QUESTIONS 301 

tliey are now pursuing, be long permitted to dominate 
the popular branch of Congress, happily the only 
branch of the government which they now control." 

On July 14tli, 188G, there was under discussion a 
resolution from the Ways and Means Committee 
directing the Secretary of the Treasury to pay a i>kvt 
of the surplus — which had given Grover Cleveland so 
much trouble, but wliich has not existed in his 
present administration — on the public debt. Major 
McKinley made an extended speech on the subject 
wliich teemed with figures. His remarks then are 
particularly important now, showing as they do that 
he did not believe the hands of the President 
should be tied ; in other words were he in Congress 
now he would be active in opposition to the Demo- 
cratic and Populistic proposition to repeal the author- 
ity to issue bonds. The Major said, among other 
things : 

" I believe it to be a judicious thing to give the 
officers charged with the management of the finan- 
cial affiiirs of the government, charged by the people, 
the power to call the bonds or withhold a call for 
bonds whenever the condition of the treasury will 
permit the one or the other. The hands of the 
President and Secretary should not be tied ; they 
should have full power to act under the laws as they 
are, and then be held to the highest responsibility 
and strictest accountability. Therefore, Mr. Chair- 
man, unless the amendment I offered at the begin- 
liing of this discussion, and another amendment 



302 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 

which will be offered by the gentleman from Maine 
(Mr. Reed), and still another which will be pre- 
sented by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Long), shall be adopted by this house, I shall feel 
constrained to glv'3 a negative vote on the resolution 
presented b}'^ the Committee on Ways and Means. 
Of course, we caiuiot help, I cannot help, no gentle- 
man on this side can help, the Democratic party 
voting to-day a want of confidence in its own admin- 
istration. We cannot prevent you from passing a 
vote of condemnation on the President of the United 
States and his Secretary, and that is what this reso- 
lution means if it becomes a law, and that is what 
you are doing when you vote for it." 

Major McKinley has always appreciated the im- 
portance of tl].e agriculturist in our national life. 
He delivered a most eulogistic speech before the 
Ohio State Grange, on December loth, 1887, of 
which the foil owing are extracts : 

" Farmers could manage to exist rather generously, 
if not luxuriously, without us, but we could not well 
«xist withoy.t them. 

" Agric^ilture may fairly be classed as the founda- 
ioD of all industries ; it is intimately related to 
Wfirj field of labor. No matter what our employ- 
.Yient, we must draw our life every day afresh from 
the soil, and our daily necessities can be supplied 
from no other source. All trade, all commerce, all 
business is but the result, direct or remote, of the 
industrial pursuit in which you are engaged. Our 



PUBLIC QUESTIONS 303 

city, in its earlier ami later progress, is peculiarly the 
offspring of agriculture. From it lias been drawn 
our chief income ; it has been the source of our reve- 
nue. We have been doing little else for thirty years 
but meeting the demands and supplying the wants 
of the farmers. 

" Tell me how the land is held, and I can tell you 
ahnost to a certainty the political system of the 
country, its form of government, and its political 
character. When land is divided into small farms, 
the property, as a rule, of those who till them, there 
is an inducement, ambition, and facility for inde- 
pendence, for progress, for wider thought and higher 
attainments in individual, industrial life. Over such 
a population no government but a free one, under 
equal laws and equal rights, with equal opportuni- 
ties, can exist for any length of time. The small 
f\irm, thoroughly worked, was the ancient model, 
commended by the early sages and philosophers ; as 
old Vergil put it, 'Praise a large farm, cultivate a 
small one.' We must avoid in this country the hold- 
ing of large tracts of land by non-resident owners 
for speculative purposes, and set our faces like flint 
against alien land-holding in small or large tracts. 
Our public domain must be re-dedicated to our own 
people, and neither foreign syndicates nor domestic 
corporations must be permitted to divert it from the 
hallowed purpose of actual settlement by real farm- 
ers. 

" One of the great lessons of history is that agri- 



304 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 

culture cannot rise to its highest 2)ertection and reach 
its fullest development without the aid of commerce, 
manufactures, and mechanical arts. All are essential 
to the healtliy growth and highest advancement of 
the others ; the progress of one insures the prosperity 
of another. There are no conflicts, there should be 
no antagonisms. They are indispensable to each 
other. Whatever enfeebles one is certain to cripple 
the rest, 

"Let us accept the advice of the fathers of the 
Republic, heed their patriotic counsels, walk stead- 
fastly in their faith, preserve the mutual helpfulness 
and harmonies of the industries, and maintain our 
independence, national, industrial, and individual, 
against all the world, and thus advance to the high 
destiny that devolves upon us and our posterity. I 
bespeak for you a pleasant and proiiLable meeting, 
and, with thanks and best wishes to all, bid you 
good-night." 

To the laboring interests and to employers as well 
it is important to know what Major McKinley's 
views are on. arbitration. They are shown in the 
closing paragraph of his speech on that subject in 
the House of Representatives, on April 2d, 1886 : 

" I believe, Mr. Chairman, in arbitration, as in 
principle ; I believe it should prevail in the settle- 
ment of international differences. It represents a 
higher civilization than the arbitrament of war. I 
believe it is in close accord with the best thought 
and sentiment of mankind; I believe it is iiie true 



rnUJC QUESTIONS 305 

way of settling differences between labor and capital; 
I believe it will bring both to u better inulcr«tanding, 
uniting tliem closer in interest, and promoting better 
relations, avoiding force, avoiding unjust exactions 
and oppression, avoiding the loss of earnings to 
labor, avoiding disturbances to trade and transporta- 
tion ; and if this House can contribute in the small- 
est measure, by legislative expression or otherwise, 
to these ends, it will deserve and receive the grati- 
tude of all men who love peace, good order, justice, 
and fair i^lay." 

The Kepublican Presidential candidate delivered 
a speech on " Prospect and Retrospect," on Septem- 
ber 14th, 1887, before the Mahoning Valley Pioneer 
Association, of which this is a striking paragraph : 

" We can hardly conceive that the next generation 
will be so rich in fruitage, so prolific in invention, so 
marvelous in achievement, so wonderful in its work ; 
but who can tell ? There seem to be a brain and a 
conscience and a manhood always ready to rise up 
and discover, at the appropriate moment, the forces 
and elements necessary in the onward march of man- 
kind. The things you and I have seen, great as they 
are, may be insignificant contrasted with the things 
unseen and yet to be developed. The ax and the 
rifle, the courage and the conscience, the brain and 
the braW'U, the f\dth in God of the pioneer, lay the 
foundations of the splendid institutions which m^ke 
possible our matchless achievements. The New Eng- 
land school-house, which came simultaneous with his 



306 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 

cabin and stockade, was our flaming torch, wliich, 
carried grandly tlirougli the century, has filled the 
whole world with its light." 

The Home Market Club, of Boston, invited Major 
McKinley to address them on February 9th, 1888. 
At that time he spoke regarding free raw materials. 
The following selection from that speech, in view of 
the events since it was made, is most striking : 

"A revenue reformer who had recently visited 
your State, said to me a few days ago, that Massa- 
chusetts had already received all the benefits she 
could from protection, and that now her interests as 
well as her inclinations lay in the other direction — 
that of free trade. Enlarging upon it he was forced 
to confess that the manufacturing thrift and activity 
everywhere seen in your commonwealth, the high 
rank you had taken, and the perfection reached in 
production, were the outcome of the system of Ameri- 
can protection ; but now free trade, or its equivalent 
or approximation, would place you in a position of 
coinniaiiding advantage over those portions of the 
country marked with less industrial development. 
If I were to admit the truth of my friend's discourse 
— which I do not — the situation would, in simple 
language, be this : Massachusetts owes her proud 
industrial position to a Protective Tariff, which she 
has enjoyed by the help of other States not so far 
advanced in mnnufactures, and which have neither 
so long nor so advantageously enjoyed its benefits. 
Now she does not need it for herself, and is unwill- 



PUBLIC QUESTIONS 307 

ing that any of her sister States shall profit by its 
assistance and enjoy its blessings. She nsed it to 
attain her high commercial position and manufactur- 
ing development. The newer States are now moving 
upward on the ladder which carried her before and 
above them. Now, as my friend would have it, she 
is ready to push the ladder down with all that is 
upon it. [Laughter.] This I know to be a base and 
ungenerous reflection upon Massachusetts, which 
her industrial people will be quick to resent, and 
which nothing in her behavior in the past would 
justify." 

On this same occasion Major McKinley delivered 
these additional gems of thought : 

" But if free wool will secure cheaper clothing to 
the people, by the same process of reasoning, cloth, 
duty free, and untaxed ready-made clothing will 
diminish the price still further, and give to the con- 
sumer the very consummation of low prices and 
cheap wearing apparel. If every consideration but 
the mere cheapness of the fabric be discarded, then 
no reason can be found why, with free wool, there 
should not come free cloth and free clothing. [Ap- 
plause.] Things, however, are sometimes the dear- 
est, when nominally they are the cheapest. The 
selling price of an article is not the only measure ; 
the ability to buy, the coin with which to purchase, 
is an important and essential element, and must not 
be dismissed from our consideration. If a man is 
without means an^ witho'?^ employment, and there 



SOS PUBLIC QUESTIONS 

is none of the latter to be had, everything is dear to 
him. The price is of the smallest, consequence, 
however cheap, if it is beyond his reach. If my 
only means is my labor, and that is unemployed, 
whether things are cheap or dear is of little moment 
to me. 

"The manufacturers of New England, and more 
particularly the skilled labor employed by them, 
need a Protective Tariff, and require it equally 
with the industries and labor of other States. It is 
imperatively demanded, not only here, but in every 
section of the Union, if the present price of labor 
is to be continued and maintained. Your industries 
cannot compete successfully, even in this market, with 
the industries of England, France, Belgium and Ger- 
many, without a tariff, so long as the price paid labor 
here exceeds the price paid labor there from 50 to 75 
per cent. This inequality can only be met by a tariff 
upon the products of cheap labor, high enough to 
compensate for the difference. You cannot compete 
except upon equal conditions and with like cost of 
the competing product. Free trade will either 
equalize the conditions by reducing your labor 
to that of the rival laborer on the other side, 
or it will close your factories and workshops and 
destroy, home production and competition. 

" Free trade means cheap labor, and cheap labor 
means diminished comforts — diminished capacity to 
buy, poor and enfeebled industries and a depend- 
ent condition generally. And every step taken in 




& ANDREW CARNKGIE. 




HOa. flAZEN S. PIN GEEK 



PUBLIC QUESTIONS 3il 

the direction of free trade, beginning with free raw 
material, is an advance, and a very long one and 
a very straight one, in the direction of reduced wages 
and a changed condition of the American working- 
man, not confined to the labor engaged in preparing 
raw materials for use, but will widen, and in the end 
enter every department of labor and skill. 

" I would secure the American market to the 
American producer [applause], and I would not 
hesitate to raise the duties whenever necessary to 
secure this patriotic end. [Applause.] I would not 
have an idle man or an idle mill or an idle spindle 
in this country if, by holding exclusively the Ameri- 
can market, we could keep them employed and run- 
ning. [Applause.] Every yard of cloth imported 
here makes a demand for one yard less of American 
fabrication. 

"Let England take care of herself; let France 
look after her interests ; let Germany take care of 
her own people, but in God's name let Americans 
look after America ! [Loud applause.] Every ton 
of steel imported diminishes that much of home pro- 
duction. Every blow struck on the other side upon 
an article which comes here in competition with 
like articles produced here, makes the demand for 
one blow less at home. Every day's labor upon the 
foreign products sent to the United States takes one 
day's laboi- from American workingmen. I woul.d 
give the day's labor to our own, first, last, and all the 
time, and that policy which fails in this is opposed 



312 PUBLIC QUESTION^ 

to American interests. To secure this is the great 
purpose of a Protective Tariff. Free-traders say, 
give it to the foreign worlvman, if ours will not jyer- 
form it at the same price and accept the same wages. 
Protectionists say no, the workingmen say no, and 
justly and indignantly resent this attempted degra- 
dation of their labor, this blow at their indej)endence 
and manhood. 

"The party that tries to lead us back will be 
buried beneath popular indignation. [Ajjplause.] 
From whom does this complaint come ? It comes 
from the scholars, so-called [laughter], and the j)oets, 
from whom we gladly take our poetry, but whose 
political economy we must decline to receive ; from 
the dilettanti and would-be diplomatists, the men of 
fixed incomes ; it comes from the men wdio ' toil not, 
neither do they spin ' [great applause], and from 
those who * do not gather into barns ' [laughter], 
who have no investments except in bonds and mort- 
gages, who want everything cheap but money, every- 
thing easy to secure but coin, who prefer the customs 
and civilization of other countries to our own, and 
who find nothing so wholesome as that which is im- 
ported, whether manners or merchandise, and want 
no obstructions in the sha])e of a tariff jj^^^^^^ upon 
the free use of both. [Applause and laughter.] 



CHAPTER XV. 



LIBERTY AND LABOR. 



"The hope of the Republic is in a citizenship that is faithful to home 
and family and devotedly loyal to country." 

" Mr. President, Members of the Illinois State Fed- 
eration of Labor, of the Trade and Labor Assembly of 
Chicago, and 3Iy Felloio- ^ Citizens : I am glad to join 
with you in observing this, our one hundred and 
nineteenth National anniver ary, that we may gather 
fresh inspirations in the cause of human freedom 
and equality and dedicate ourselves anew, in com- 
mon with our fellow-citizens everywhere, to the good 
work of maintaining the free Government which our 
fathers inaugurated more than a century ago. No 
city in America has a better right or a better reason 
to rejoice at its majesty and strength than Chicago, 
and no citizens of any city in any State should cele- 
brate it with more zeal and joy than her working 
people, who have done so much to make Chicago the 
great inland metropolis of our country, whose mar- 
velous progress is the admiration and wonder of the 
world. 

" We are a Nation of working people ; some one 

318 



314 LIBERTY AND LABOE 

has said that Americans are born busy, and that 
they never find time to be idle or indolent. We 
glory in the fact that in the dignity and elevation of 
labor we find our greatest distinction among the 
nations of the earth. The United States possesses 
practically as much energy or working power as 
Great Britain, Germany, and France combined, so 
that the ratio of working power falling to each 
American is more than that of to two people of any 
other nation. But with our improved and superior 
machinery each American laborer is enabled to 
accomplish, relatively, still more than his European 
competitor. The American laborer not only does 
more and better work, but there are more skilled, 
intelligent, and capable artisans here now in propor- 
tion to the total population than in any other coun- 
try of the world. No other country can boast of so 
great a j^ercentage of producers among her instructed 
poj^ulation, and none other can point to so large a 
number of enlightened and educated citizens. The 
census statistics of 1890 place the number of our 
citizens over ten years of age engaged in gainful 
occupations at 22,735,000, while Sir Michael G. Mul- 
hall, the noted English statistician, refers to the fact 
that no other civilized country could ever before 
boast of 41,000,000 instructed citizens. Indeed, we 
may find in the able review of the industrial activi- 
ties of our country recently published by this distin- 
guished authority many striking texts for patriotic 
contemplation. He states very frankly : 



LIBERTY AND LABOR 315 

" * If we were to take a survey of mankind in 
ancient or modern times as regards the physical, 
mechanical, and intellectual force of nations, we find 
nothing to compare with the United States in this 
present year of 1895. The physical and mechanical 
power which has enabled a community of wood- 
cutters and farmers to become in less than one hun- 
dred years the greatest Nation in the world is the 
aggregate of the strong arms of men and women, 
aided by horse-power, machinery, and steam-power 
applied to the useful arts and sciences of every-day 
life. The power that traces a furrow in the prairie, 
sows the seed, reaps and threshes the ripe grain ; the 
power that converts -wheat into flour, that weaves 
wool or cotton into textile stuffs and garments ; the 
power that lifts the mineral from the bowels of the 
earth, that forges iron and constructs railroads ; the 
power that bull :1s up towns and cities — in a word, 
whatever force is directed for the production, con- 
veyance, or distribution of the necessaries, comforts, 
or luxuries of life, may be measured at each 
National census with almost the same precision as 
that with which the astronomer indicates the dis- 
tances of the heavenly bodies.' 

" We shall not enter upon such a computation or 
study, interesting as it might be, but you are to be 
congratulated upon the fact that in every field of 
progress and development Chicago has always been 
to the front and borne a most conspicuous part. 
Upon this proud record I feel that you are to be es- 



316 LIBERTY AKD LABOR 

pecially congratulated, for I am sure that to no class 
of her citizens is this great city so much indebted for 
her marvelous growth as to her wage-earners, arti- 
sans, and working people. It can truthfully be said 
that no other city in the country has been so shin- 
ing a light, so truly an example and model in enter- 
prise and energy for so many people in so many 
States as Chicago. Her people have set the pace for 
the great Northwest, now chasing other j)arts of the 
country in the race of progress and supremacy. It 
is fitting that they should rejoice, and above all most 
appropriate that they should select this glad anni- 
versary as the occasion for such jubilations. 

"This day, forever the most illustrious in our 
history, is crowded with patriotic memories. It 
belongs to history, and celebrates that only wliich is 
grand and inspiring in history. Every memory, 
every tradition, every event about it must inspire 
every patriot with true homage to country and with 
hope, courage, and confidence for the future. It is 
the baptismal day of freedom ; the day when the 
hearts of Young America are proud and glad and 
the hearts of the old are young again. It celebrates 
the grandest act in the history of the human race — ^the 
Declaration of American Independence, and a ring- 
ing protest against usurpation and tyranny in that 
age and every other. It has no rival ; Lincoln's im- 
mortal Proclamation of Emancipation was but its 
fitting supplement and actual fulfillment. Yorktown 
pointed the way, but it was Appomattox that marked 



..TBETJTY A^T^) LABOK 317 

the completed, unquestioned, glorious realization of 
both. 

" The Fourth of July calls us back to the most 
heroic era of American annals, and I can conceive 
of nothing more profitable than a consideration of 
the origin and meaning of our National anniversary 
and a brief notice of some of the patriotic leaders who 
made its celebration possible. The day records the 
event which gave birth to the Nation, that glad event 
to humanity out of which has arisen the great Na- 
tional fabric that we now enjoy, and the preservation 
and advancement of which should be our highest and 
most sacred concern. We cannot study the early 
history of the country without marveling at the 
courage, the foresight, the sagacity, and the broad- 
mindedness of the men who promulgated the Decla- 
ration of Independence and who subsequently 
launched a new government under a written Consti- 
tution. The men who framed the Declaration and 
Constitution seem now to have been inspired for 
their great work, to have been raised up by Jehovah, 
like His prophets of old, especially for the supreme 
duties and grave responsibilities He placed upon 
them. 

" Both instruments were in part the work of the 
same men, and never was the spirit and impulse of a 
preliminary document more apparent in the com- 
pleted act. What illustrious men constituted the 
Continental Congress of 1776 — and most of them 
were young mea. whose subsequent careers were as 



31§ LIBERTY A^^D LABOR 

distinguished and useful as their first great work in- 
dicated they would become ! Every American can 
proudly call that roll of honor without reservation, 
apology, or omission. From Virginia came Jeffer- 
son, its author; Harrison, Nelson, AVythe, the Lees, 
and Braxton, all famous in the annals of the State, 
and all freely risking life and fortune for their be- 
loved country. From Massachusetts came John 
Hancock, * the outlawed but uncompromising Presi- 
dent ;' John Adams, ' the Colossus of Independence,' 
and his equally patriotic kinsman, Samuel Adams, 
Hhe Father of the Revolution.' Near them sat 
Benjamin Franklin, the resourceful and wise philos- 
opher, the eloquent Edward Butledge, of South 
Carolina, and those tireless and talented advocates 
of freedom and union, Thomas McKean and Caesar 
Rodney, of Delaware. In another group, perhaps, 
were the four brave men who in later years sat with 
"Washington to frame and sign the Constitution — 
Roger Sherman, of Connecticut; George Read, of 
Delaware, and George Clymer and James Wilson, 
of Pennsylvania. Near them were those sweet- 
spirited and able counselors and orators, Arthur Mid- 
dleton, of South Carolina, and Richard Henry Lee, 
of Virginia. Then there were John Witherspoon, of 
Princeton College, a disciple of Christ and the Chris- 
tian doctrine of civil liberty ; John Penn, the sturdy 
patriot of North Carolina ; Lyman Hall, of Georgia ; 
Chase, Paca, and Stone, of Maryland ; Bartlett and 
Whipple, of New Hampshire ; Floyd and Living- 



LTBET^TY AXD LABOT? 319 

ston, of New York ; Hopkins and Ellery, of Rhode 
Island, and the young and ardent Charles Carroll, 
of Carrollton. 

" Nor must we omit to mention two of this dis- 
tinguished body of patriots — Dickinson, the eloquent 
' Pennsylvania Farmer,' and his colleague, Kobert 
Morris, ' the Financier of the Kevolution,' whose 
energy, self-sacrifice, and devotion were as unbounded 
as his integrity and probity were unimpeachable. It 
is related that after he had already involved himself 
to the extent of $1 ,500,000 in behalf of the Govern- 
ment, he said to a Quaker friend : ' I want money 
for the use of the army.' 

" * What security can thee give V 

" ' My word and my honor,' replied Morris. 

" ' Robert, thou shalt have it,' was the prompt 
reply. 

" Equally as useful and perhaps as influential as 
most of the members was the efficient Secretary of 
the Continental Congress, Charles Thompson, who for 
fifteen years was the faithful recorder of all its pro- 
ceedings, and who both witnessed and directed the 
signing of the Declaration. To him we are indebted, 
perhaps, more than to any other, for the enrollment 
and preservation of the historic parchment itself. 

" These were the men and men like them, who 
founded our Government. It has always seemed to 
me most fortunate that they were a truly represen- 
tative body, not only as to the States and sections of 
the country, but in the character of their callings 



320 LIBEETY AND LABOE 

and pursuits in life. The country was new and but 
little developed, yet these men were familiar with 
and represented in themselves every condition of 
American life and society. Many of them were men 
of great experience in public affairs, ' the architects 
of their own fortunes,' who generally had risen 
despite great odds, and were in no sense adventurers 
or hot-headed revolutionists. 

" They built, not for themselves alone, but for pos- 
terity. Their plans stretched far out into the future, 
compassing the ages and embracing mankind. Not 
alone for the present were their sacrifices and 
struggles, but for all time thereafter. Not for 
American colonists only, but for the whole human 
race, wherever men and women are struggling for 
higher, freer, and better conditions. It was as the 
yearning of the soul for emancipation. It was the 
cry of humanity for freedom — freedom to think, 
speak, and act within the limitations of just and 
pi'oper laws, which should be .of their own making. 
If it should prove ineffectual, all was lost, and tyr- 
anny and oppression would be perpetual. It was 
the mighty struggle of the ages for the freedom of 
m^n, for the equal opportunity of all mankind. It 
involved those ' inalienable rights, life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness ;' and it was no fault of 
its author that the shackles of slavery were left upon 
any human being in the Kepublic. What it fell 
short of he fully comprehended, and he wrote as he 
designed, intending that the Declaration should be 



LIBERTY AND LABOR 331 

forever the protest of a Nation against every form 
of tyranny, oppression, and bondage known to men. 
" Liberty and conscience triumphed, and because of 
that triumph we have enjoyed for now more than a 
century the freest and best government in the world. 
The liberty which was secured by so great a sacrifice 
was not the liberty of lawlessness, not the liberty of 
licentiousness, but liberty for law, and law always for 
liberty, and both for all the people. It was not 
liberty for a class merely, but liberty and political 
equality for all the people ; not a struggle for landed 
proprietors, for men of wealth and gentle birth, but 
liberty for the masses, the poor as well as the rich, 
the low as well as the ' high. It was not a victory 
easily won — indeed, the wonder is that it was won at 
all. It was a contest waged by weak and struggling 
colonies, beset by enemies at home, as well as opposed 
by the most powerful government in the world, * the 
proud mistress of the seas,' their old Mother 
Country, strongly intrenched in power, and with the 
wealth of centuries at command. 

" It took seven years of war to make the Declara- 
tion of Independence respected as more than the idle 
words of a few restless leaders. Yet that great 
proclamation of freedom fell short of what Jefferson 
intended that it should contain. It is an interesting 
fact that the author of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence and some of those associated with him deeply 
deplored the slave trade which was then actively en- 
gaged in by several of the Colonies. It is a fact 
20 



322 LIBERTY AND LABOR 

worth cherishing that iu the original draft by Jeffer- 
son he charged the king with willful participation in 
the slave trade. Here is the passage which was 
omitted, and it is certainly one of the most striking 
of the wonderful document : 

" ' He [King George] has waged cruel war against 
human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights 
of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people 
who never offended him, captivating and carrying 
them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur 
miserable death in their transportation thither. 
This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel 
powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of 
Great Britain, Determined to keep open the 
market where men should be bought and sold, he 
has prostituted his negative for suppressing every 
legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this 
execrable commerce. And that this assemblao-e of 
horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he 
is now exciting those very peoj^le to rise in arms 
among us and purchase that liberty of which he has 
deprived them by murdering the people on which he 
also obtruded them ; thus paying off former crimes 
committed against the liberties of one people with 
crimes which he urges them to commit against the 
lives of another.' 

" This, alas, was left out of the otherwise perfect 
Declaration of Independence. What a world of 
trouble and sorrow it would have saved to posterity 
had it remained ! What a blot it would have spared 



LIBERTY AND LABOR 323 

the fair fiiiiie of this Republic, and what tliousands 
of precious lives would have been saved if that great 
truth had become a part of the Charter of our Lib- 
erties, and its spirit have been ingrafted upon the 
Constitution in 1787 ! It is doubtful whether the 
Declaration could have been adopted if it had not 
been eliminated. Some of the Colonies would 
doubtless have withheld their assent, because some 
of them, or some of the people dwelling therein, were 
engaged themselves in the unholy traffic. It was the 
best and all that could be done at the time ; more 
was not required then, and need not be deeply de- 
plored now. Jefferson reluctantly yielded the point, 
but the passage remains as a permanent record not 
only to his broad philanthropy and exalted patriot- 
ism, but to his marvelous sagacity and foresight as 
one of the ablest and noblest of American statesmen. 
We can but reflect that what was in the hearts of 
Jefferson and many of his associates more than one 
hundred and nineteen years ago continued to stir the 
hearts of mankind, and that men could not slumber 
until slavery w^as totally extinguished. It took 
nearly a hundred years of national agitation and 
finally a war which cost the country hundreds of 
thousands of brave men and millions of the public 
treasury to put into the Constitution of the country 
what Jefferson wanted to put from the first into the 
Declaration of Independence. 

" It is interesting to note what seemed the almost 
insuperable obstacles to the final victory which 



334 LIBERTY AND LABOR 

inaugurated free government on this continent. In 
the limitations of an address like this it is impossible 
to give them even a casual review. There was one 
great menace, however, that seems to have received 
little attention at the time which impresses me deeply, 
and may possess some interest to you, since it brings 
into prominence the noble character of Washington 
and his agency in securing the blessings we now 
enjoy. It was after hostilities had ceased, although 
no public proclamation of peace had yet been made. 
Washington had been urged to accept a kingship, 
but had sternly rebuked every suggestion of dictator- 
ship on his part. The army was at Newburgh with- 
out pay, almost without food, and suffering in rags. 
Washington best describes its condition in a letter to 
the Secretary of War, from which I read : 

" * Under present circumstances, when I see a 
number of men goaded by a thousand stings of re- 
flection on the past and anticipations of the future, 
about to be turned on the world, forced by penury 
and by what they call the ingratitude of the public, 
involved in debt, without one farthing to carry them 
home, after spending the flower of their days and 
many of their patrimonies in establishing the free- 
dom of their country and suffering everything this 
side of death — I repeat that when I consider these 
irritating circumstances, without one thing to soothe 
their feelings or dispel their prospects, I cannot 
avoid apprehending that a train of evils will follow 
of a very serious and distressing nature. You may 



LIBERTY AND LABOR 325 

rely upon it, tlie patriotism and long suffering of this 
Army is well-nigh exhausted, and there never was 
so great a S2)irit of discontent as at j^resent.' 

" He stood between the Army and Congress, sym- 
pathizing deeply with his brave comrades in tlieir 
deplorable condition, and yet in their presence, and 
in all his relations with them, upholding Congress 
and finding good excuses for its failure to provide 
for the Continental Army. The greatest discontent 
was prevalent, and a manifesto was issued and cir- 
culated among the officers and men which was well 
calculated to move tliem to acts of disorder and vio- 
lence. This was its strong language : 

" * Faith has its limits as well as its temper, and 
there are points beyond which neither can be 
stretched without sinking into cowardice or plunging 
into credulity. If this be your treatment while the 
swords you wear are necessary to the protection of 
your country, what have you to expect from peace, 
when your voice shall sink and your strength dissi- 
pate by division, when those very swords, the instru- 
ments and companions of your glory, shall be taken 
from your sides and no remaining mark of your 
military distinction is left but your infirmities and 
Bears ? Can you consent to retire from the field and 
grow old in poverty, wretchedness, and contempt ? 
Can you consent to wade Ihrough the vile mire of 
despondency and owe the remnant of that life to 
charity which has hitherto been spent in honor? 
If you can, go, and carry with ycu the jest of Tories, 



[526 LIBERTY AND LABOR 

the scorn of Whigs, and, what is worse, the pity of 
the world. Go, starve, and be forgotten.' 

" ' Suspect the man,' it continued, referring directly 
to Washington, ' who would advise to more modera- 
tion and longer forbearance. Tell Congress that 
with it rests the responsibility of the future ; that if 
peace returns nothing but death shall separate you 
from your arms, and that if the war continues you 
will retire to some unsettled country to smile in turn 
and mock when their fear cometh.' 

" This was the situation that confronted Washing- 
ton. These words of discontent and mutinous im- 
port were easily caught up by many of the bi-ave 
but suffering men, the heroic men whom he had 
borne on his great heart for seven long years. He 
declared this to be the darkest day of his life ; no 
defeat in all the years of the Revolution had borne 
so terrible an aspect. He beheld the half-naked, 
starving Army about to be led into mutiny, and per- 
haps, all the horrors of a bloody and desperate civil 
war, whose chief incentives would be rapine and 
plunder. What was he to do in this great emer- 
gency ? 

" A meeting was called without his knowledge or 
consent to take action. He appreciated its gravity ; 
he realized the meeting was fraught with the direct 
consequences to the Army and the country. It 
might destroy all that had been accomplished in the 
long struggle. He quickly determined his course. 
He issued a peremptory order postponing it for four 




SENATOR E O. WOLC'OTT. 



^ 




HON. JOHN WANAMAKER. 



LIBERTY AXD LABOR 329 

days, and prepared an address that for force of utter- 
ance, lofty patriotism, and unselfish devotion to the 
cause for which they had jointly fought has to me 
scarcely an equal in the literature of the Revolu- 
tion. He attended the meeting ; it was held on 
March 15th, 1783. It was the trying moment of 
his life, as well as a crucial test in the fate of the 
new and unsettled Government of the Republic. 
He had for those brave men, as he looked upon them 
assembled in the Temple, only love, gratitude, and 
sympathy. He unrolled his manuscript — forgetting 
for the moment his spectacles, which had become in- 
dispensable to him — but, pausing, he took them from 
his pocket, and before adjusting them remarked, in 
words full of emotion : 

" ' These eyes, my friends, have grown dim and 
these locks white in the service, yet I never doubted 
the justice of my country.' 

" Referring to the manifesto, he said : 
" ' My God, what can this writer have in view in 
recommending such measures ? Can he be a friend 
of the country and the army ? No ! He is plot- 
ting the ruin of both. Let me conjure you in the 
name of our common country, as you value your own 
sacred honor, as you respect the rights of humanity, 
as you regard the military or national character of 
America, to express your utmost horror and detesta- 
tion of the man who wishes, under any specious 
pretense, to overturn the liberties of our country, 
and who wickedly attempts to open the flood-gates 



330 LIBERTY AND LABOR 

of civil discord and deluge our rising empire in 
blood.' 

"After urging them to exhibit the same unselfish 
patriotism, the same devotion to duty that had always 
characterized them, and await with patience justice 
from the country they had served so faithfully, he 
said : 

" ' By thus determining and acting you will pursue 
the plain and direct road to the attainment of your 
wishes ; you will defeat the insidious designs of our 
enemies, who are compelled to resort from open force 
to secret artifice, and you will give one more distin- 
guishing proof of unexampled patriotism and patient 
virtue rising superior to the most complicated suffer- 
ings, and you will, by the dignity of your conduct, 
afford occasion for posterity to say, when speaking 
of the glorious example you have exhibited to man- 
kind : " Had this day been wanting, the world had 
never seen the last stage of perfection to which 
human virtue is capable of attaining." ' 

" Such an appeal from such a man could not be 
unavailing. The effect was instant; his inspired 
words were magical. His address finished, he walked 
out of the Temple alone, leaving his words of wisdom 
with them for such unrestrained consideration and 
action as they might see fit to take. The ofiicers at 
once adopted rasolutions of thanks, reciprocating the 
affectionate expressions of their Commander-in- 
Chief and indignantly repudiating the wicked mani- 
festo. Civil war was at that moment averted, and 



LTRERTV AND LABOR 331 

did not again so seriously confront the country for 
nearly eighty years. 

" This, I repeat, is a day of patriotic memories, 
and, perhaps, another allusion to the War for Inde- 
13endence may prove of some interest to you. On 
April 18th, 1783, a little more than a month after 
the scene just described, AVashington issued his 
order announcing that hostilities had ceased. Let 
me read it to you : 

" * Headquarters, Newburgh, April 18th, 1793. 

"'The Commander-in-Chief orders the cessation 
of hostilities between the United States of America 
and the King of Great Britain to be publicly read 
to-morrow at twelve o'clock, at the New Building, 
and the proclamation, which will be communicated 
herewith, to be read to-morrow evening at the head 
of every regiment and corps of the army. After 
which the chaplains with the several brigades will 
render thanks to Almighty God for all His mercies, 
particularly for His overruling the wrath of man to 
His own glory, and causing the rage of war to cease 
among the nations.* 

" We can well pause, even at this distant day, and 
offer our thanksgiving to that same power for His 
mercies to us, and for the singular manner in which 
He has preserved this Government from then until 
now against the * wrath of man to His own glory * 
and our most glorious advancement. 

" Following this order there was a great demon- 
stration of joy among the soldiers, and even the gal- 



332 LIBEETY AND LABOR 

lant officers, who but a few weeks before had been 
filled with such great discontent, now alike joined 
in singing with excited and jubilant air that grand 
old anthem, ' Independence,' then so popular, but 
long since forgotten and lost : 

" * The States, O Lord, with song and praise, 
Shall in Thy strength rejoice ; 
And, blest with Tliy salvation, raise 

To heaven their cheerful voice, 
And all the continent shall ring, 
Down with this earthly king ; 
No king but God.* 

"Interesting as these incidents may be to all who 
would, by a correct understanding of the past, wisely 
improve the future, we can review them no further. 
The past is secure ; the present and the future are 
our fields of oj^i^ortunity and duty. Those who have 
gone before did well their part. Shall we be less 
brave and patriotic in the performance of our duty ? 

" What a mighty nation has been erected upon the 
immortal principles of the great Declaration, the 
signing of which we celebrate to-day ! We have 
increased from thirteen to forty-four States; from 
3,000,000 to nearly 70,000,000 people. We have 
arisen from slavery to freedom ; from what some 
men believed a mere confederacy of States, to be 
dissolved at pleasure, to a mighty, eternal Union of 
indivisible, indestructible States; from an agricul- 
tural community to the foremost Nation of the world 
in all the arts and sciences, in manufactures, in agri- 



LIBERTY AXD LABOR 333 

culture, and in mining. Liberty, labor, and love 
have accomj^lislied it all. Labor has been dignified 
and has vindicated the truth that tlie best citizen of 
any community is its most useful citizen. All men 
have equal rights guaranteed by our Constitution 
and laws, and that equality nmst be forever pre- 
served and strengthened and everywhere recognized. 
We are all Americans, we are all sovereigns, equal 
in the ballot, and that citizen is the best who does 
his best ; who follows the light as God gives him to 
see the light ; who concedes to all the races of man- 
kind what he claims for himself; who rigidly 
respects the rights of others ; who is ever willing 
and ready to assist others ; who has the best heart, 
the best character, the greatest charity and sympa- 
thy, and who withholds from none of his fellow-men 
the respect, privileges, and protection he claims for 
himself. This is the citizenship that is the need of 
every age and to which we must educate ourselves 
and those who are to come after us. This is the 
citizenship that is the hope of the Eepublic, its 
security and permanency, which is the hope of man- 
kind, our own best hope ; a citizenship that is faith- 
ful to home and family, devotedly loyal to country, 
that encourages the truest and broadest national 
spirit, the most thorough and genuine Americanism, 
that is ever moving onward and upward toward the 
highest ideals of modern civilization ; a citizenship 
that respects law and constituted authority, that 
loyally upholds, guards, and supports the Govern- 



334 LIBEETY AND LABOE 

ment of which it is a part, in whose administration 
it has a voice, and that rests upon the free choice 
and consent of a majority of the people. These 
were the characteristics which possessed the souls of 
the men who landed in the ' Mayflower,' who resisted 
British oppression, who promulgated the immortal 
Declaration of Independence. These are the 
elements of character which gave us a Patrick 
Henry, a Franklin, a Washington, a Jefferson, an 
Adams, a Jackson, a Grant, and which produced a 
Lincoln, whose name has enriched history, and 
whose great Emancipation Proclamation has blessed 
mankind and glorified God. 

" It was this character of citizenship, and the aim 
to secure it, that animated the men who fought all 
the battles of the Pepublic from the Pevolution to 
the great Civil War ; that struck slavery from the 
Constitution of the United States, that obliterated 
caste and bondage and made freedom universal in 
the Republic. The greatest battle which the Nation 
has fought has been to secure to labor the right to do 
with its skill, energy, and industry what it chooses, 
through lawful pursuits and by peaceable means, 
ever obedient to law and order, and respectful of the 
rights of all ; that has given labor the unquestioned 
right to use wliat it earns in its own way in the 
elevation of home and family ; that has taught 
labor to give conscience its full sway, and that 
has inspired labor to improve wisely every oppor- 
tunity which makes possible the realization of the 



LIBERTY AND LABOR 335 

highest hopes and best aspirations of the human 
race. 

" Peace, order, and good will among the people, 
with patriotism in their hearts ; truth, honor, and 
justice in the executive, judicial, and legislative 
branches of the Government, municipal. State, and 
National ; all yielding respect and obedience to law, 
all equal before the law, and all alike amenable to 
law — such are the conditions that will make our 
Government too strong ever to be broken by internal 
dissensions and too powerful ever to be overturned 
by any enemy from without. Then will the Govern- 
ment of the people, under the smiles of heaven, 
bless, prosper, and exalt the people who sustain and 
support it ! 

" In America no one is born to power ; none 
assured of station or command except by his own 
worth or usefulness. But to any post of honor all 
who choose may aspire, and history has proved that 
the humblest in youth are frequently the most hon- 
ored and powerful in the maturity of strength and 
age. It has long been demonstrated that the philos- 
ophy of Jefferson is true, and that this, the land of 
the free and self-governed, is the strongest as well as 
the best Government in the world. We accept no 
governmental standards but our own ; we will have 
no flag but the glorious old Stars and Stripes. 

" AVorkingmen of Chicago, let me abjure you to 
be faithful to the acts, traditions, and teachings of 
the fathers. Make their standard of patriotism and 



336 LIBERTY AND LABOE 

duty your own. Be faithful to tlieir glorious exam- 
ple. Whatever the difficulties of the present, or 
problems of the future, meet them in the same spirit 
of unflinching loyalty to country, the same devotion 
and love for home and family, the same acknowledg- 
ment of .dependence upon God that has always char- 
acterized those grand men. Therein rests your great- 
est prosperity and happiness and the surest attainment 
of your best and dearest ambitions. Have confidence 
in the strength of our free institutions and faith in 
the justice of your fellow-citizens, for as Lincoln 
often said ' there is no other hope in the world equal 
to it.' 

" In conclusion, let me offer the advice and ex- 
hortation of one who spoke on an occasion somewhat 
similar to this in the Centennial year 1876 in the 
city of Boston, the venerable Robert C. Winthrop, 
of Massachusetts, in his masterly Fourth of July 
oration and one of his last great public addresses. 
He had lived through nearly the whole period of our 
National existence and had been an active partici- 
pant in public affairs and a close student of our his- 
tory and people for many years. With this training 
and all the wisdom of experience and age, he pro- 
foundly observed : 

" * If I could hope without presumption that any 
humble counsels of mine on this hallowed anniver- 
sary would be remembered beyond the hour of their 
utterance and reach the ears of my countrymen in 
future days, I could not omit certainly to reiterate 



LIBEETY AND LABOR 337 

the solemn obligations which rest on every citizen 
of this Republic to cherish and enforce the great 
principles of our Colonial and Revolutionary fathers 
— the principles of liberty and law, one and insepar- 
able — the principles of the Constitution and the 
Union. I could not omit to urge every man to re- 
member that self-government politically can only be 
successful if it be accompanied by self-government 
personally ; that there must be government some- 
where ; and that if the people are indeed to be sov- 
ereigns they must exercise their sovereignty over 
themselves individually as well as over themselves 
in the aggregate — regulating their own lives, resist- 
ing their own temptations, subduing their own pas- 
sions and voluntarily imposing upon themselves 
some measure of that restraint and discipline which, 
under other systems, is supplied from the armories 
of arbitary power — the discipline of virtue, in the 
place of the discipline of slavery. I could not omit 
to caution them against the corrupting influences of 
intemperance, extravagance, and luxury ; I could 
not omit to call upon them to foster and further the 
cause of universal education ; to give a liberal sup- 
port to our schools and colleges; to promote the 
advancement of science and art in all their multi- 
plied divisions and relations, and to encourage and 
sustain all those noble institutions of charity which 
in our own land, above all others, have given the 
crowning grace and glory to modern civilization.' 
" It would to me be an honor beyond any other to 



338 



LIBEETY AND LABOR 



have been the author of these sublime sentiments. 
I can and do adojDt them, and beg you to heed, 
cherish, and teach them, as a rule of action to your- 
selves and to your children. American citizenship 
thus molded will perpetuate freedom, exalt the free- 
man, and distinguish the Ilej)ublic beyond its past 
glorious achievements." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME. 

The great Protectionist's Wife — Strong despite physical weakness^ 
Shares all her husband's burdens — "Ever happy when sur- 
rounded by friends, children, and roses." 

[Sketch by Miss H. D. Hallmark.] 

•' T AM very glad to meet you," she said, as I 

I 11 eared her chair. 

^ A tone is the index which gives you the page 

where a character is written. Tlie moment the sen- 
tence was finished I knew Mrs. William McKinley 
belonged to the sincerely gracious type of women. 

It only needed her face and outstretched hand to 
verify the classification. 

Governor McKinley had brought me in to meet 
his wife through a group of politicians and friends 
who were sitting on the terrace and wide veranda at 
his house at Canton, O. As we walked through the 
shadowy, spacious hall toward the sitting-room the 
laughter and hum of feminine voices reached me. 

"I will not disturb Mrs. McKinley if she is en- 
tertaining callers, Governor," I said. 

339 



340 MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME! 

"Then 1 very much fear you would never see 
her," he answered. "It is the penalty of her 
geniality that she gladly pays. She is ever happy 
when surrounded by friends, children, and roses." 

And in that atmosphere I found her. She had 
visitors of the gentler sex from California and Ver- 
mont — friends whom she had made in Congressional 
days. Roses were everywhere. One seemed turned 
loose in a conservatory. 

Two tiny chairs waited occupancy. The Governor 
turned to pick up a chubby-faced, yellow-ringleted 
three-year-old who came with hands full of flowers 
and lips ready to be kissed by " Auntie McKinley." 

" That is my name to every acquaintance under 
ten years of age," said Mrs. McKinley, " It used to 
be my boast that I knew every child in Canton. I 
fear the town grows beyond me now ; but reciprocity 
is great, and the children seem drawn to me because 
they know I love them so." 

HER LOVE OF CHILDREN. 

If Mrs. McKinley were asked " What are your 
preferences ?" the first answer would be " Children." 

Twenty-three years ago she lost the two little ones 
that came to bless the sunny house at Canton. The 
first was born on Christmas Day and the second on 
April 1st. 

Since the music of the two thiy voices died aw:iy 
from her ears forever Mrs. McKinley has found that 



MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 341 

her heart throbs quicker at the prattle of a cliiki than 
aught else, and that her love is wide enough to cover 
all small lives, whether they be the offspring of poet 
or peasant, king or beggar. 

By the side of her great reception chair stand two 
little rockers. One belonged to their first born and 
the other was the infant throne of Mrs. McKinley 
herself when she was " Baby Saxton," and all Can- 
ton loved her. 

For while the branches of Mrs. McKinley's life 
have spread far and wide, giving shade, shelter, fra- 
grance, and sweetness to many other lives, the roots 
are firmly established in that thriving little Western 
town. 

Twenty-six years ago Ida Saxton was Canton's 
belle and heiress. Her father was a business man — 
rich beyond the order for those times. Houses, lands, 
and banks were his. 

Of sturdy old Presbyterian stock, he brought up 
his children after the way they should go, studying 
the Westminster Confession of Faith, and commit- 
ting the Shorter Catechism to memory. 

He was a man of influence in his county, and all 
homage was given to the pretty young daughter who 
came home after graduating at Media, Pa., and made 
her bow to the social circles of Canton. Her father, 
however, had his own ideas about girls, and it was not 
all to be " bangs and beaux " with his daughter. 

" Girls should learn to do something that will 
bring them in money if fortune should be fickle," he 



342 MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 

argued. And the pretty daughter was put into his 

own bank at Canton for a year to prove that Media 

had taught her something besides " a little Latin." 

" And the prospect looked quite dreary to me/' 

said Mrs. McKinley, in talking it over, " for all the 

other girls had brothers to take them out, and my 

one was only a wee lad. But," she added, with a 

twinkle in her great gray eyes, " every man in town 

promised to be a brother to me, and, oh ! I did have 

such a good time." 

" And the Governor ? Was he a childhood's 

sweetheart, as I have heard?" I asked. 

" Not at all. He ran away to the army when he 
was sixteen, and served along with President Hayes. 
That was the strong bond between them. After that 
he began his law practice in Canton, and — why then 
the other brothers dropped off one by one. Every- 
one approved of the match, my father most of all — 
and so we were married." 

Where Mrs. McKinley lives now the Governor 
brought her home a bride. For twenty-five years 
the house on North Market Street has remained un- 
altered, and the Governor and his wife dearly love 
every picture on its walls and every rose that climbs 
over the terrace. 

The First Presbyterian Church, a fine piece of 
3tone architecture, was dedicated by the Saxton-Mc- 
Kinley wedding. The builders hurried the prepa- 
rations to completion that this wedding might be 
the very first event inside its walls. 



MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 343 

All the Saxton's are yet ardent members aud sup- 
porters of it, but Mrs. McKiiiley usually goes with 
her husband to the Methodist Church, of which he 
is an enthusiastic supporter. 

As Ida Saxton was Canton's belle a quarter of a 
century ago, so Mrs. William McKinley is the most 
popular woman there to-day. No honors of State 
or nation's capital have spoiled her. She inherited 
sterner stuff than that. She is just as gracious to 
some old beaux whose lives have come to nothing as 
she is to an illustrious executive. 

She has a keen interest in people. They are more 
to her than position. It is the individual, not the 
class, for which she cares. 

As the Governor said, it would be hard to see 
Mrs. McKinley when she didn't have callers. The 
house is always open. The neighborly spirit which 
rules in smaller towns exists in Canton to a great 
degree, but the neighborliness to the McKinleys 
comes from all points of the Union. 

During the day I spent with them there were no 
fewer than fifty friendly formal callers, and yet the 
day was not a gala one. 

The favorite house-corner of the Governor's wife 
is the great triple bow window of the long western 
sitting-room. 

Here she sits for hours, talking to friends, playing 
with children, or watching the passers-by on wheels, 
foot, and carriage ; for North Market Street is a 
fashionable thoroughfare and the town authorities 



344 MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 

wish to shortly change the name to the more signifi^ 
cant and euphonious one of McKinley Avenue. 

I say she " sits " there, for misfortune laid a heavy 
hand on Mrs. McKinley twenty-three years ago, and 
the muscles of her limbs are too weak to allow her 
to walk. 

For twenty-three years, therefore, she has never 
stood upright or walked without assistance. 

By her side always rests a strong mahogany cane 
with a great gold top, and a friend's arm serves for 
the other support. 

That is the only sign of invaldism. Women with 
far slighter physical troubles have worn weaker 
faces. Mrs. McKinley is a tall, well-rounded, strong- 
faced, clear-eyed woman, who needs must point to 
the staff and say, as she does, smilingly to every 
stranger — " You see I'm not strong," before there 
comes a suspicion that she cannot walk and ride 
and wheel and do aught that strong women do. 

For she looks so vital. 

She is about medium height, with a full, straight 
figure. The face has strong cheek bones, a wide 
brow, not very high, from which her short, soft, 
gray hair divides in broad parting and waves back 
to the collar. 

This coiffure is not one of Mrs. McKinley's choos- 
ing, but her luxuriant hair had to be cut, as she did 
not feel quite strong enough to bear the hairpins and 
braids through the unflagging duties as wife of a 
public man. 




HON. LYMAN J. GAGE. 




HON. JOHN D. LONG. 



MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 347 

However, it is exceedingly becoming to her. Her 
brow, hair, and eyes reminded me singularly of those 
of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 

Mrs. McKiniey's eyes are her telling point. Had 
the mouth been weak the eyes would have redeemed 
it. But its strength says to the eyes, " We are one 
in purpose." 

They are magnetic eyes. 

In them one sees the discipline of suffering, the 
heritage of common sense, the graciousness of a 
kindly woman, the tenderness of a wife who loves 
wisely and well. 

But behind even that one who watches sees the 
steel badge of courage ; the squareness of judgment 
which looks a world straight into the face ; and some- 
where, away down in a spot no bigger than the small 
end of a wine funnel, the determination to be bigger 
than anything than can happen to her. 

With such a woman fate has no victory, circum- 
stance no sting, and chance would have made her an 
invalid ; herself defeated it. 

THE GOVERNOK's DEVOTION. 

Her physical weakness is no skeleton in a closet. 
She speaks of it to all acquaintances — never in a 
desire to use the first person singular, but as an ex- 
planation that she doesn't do more as a hostess, 
although every one knows that she accomplishes 
more than many a healthy, selfish woman. 



348 MES. McKINLEY AT HOME 

She was speaking of it in tlie reception room dur- 
ing the afternoon, saying to an enthusiastic biker 
that wheels were a subject where she didn't have to 
fight for the merits of her chosen one, for bicycling 
was quite beyond her forever, "As I can't even walk," 
she added. 

A young girl quickly sighed. 
Mrs. McKinley turned to her with that wonderful 
tenderness on her face that comes to a girl's mouth 
and eyes when her lover is mentioned, and said: 
" But, my child, I have the great love of a noble 
man." 

And who could sigh after that ? 
The devotion of Governor McKinley to his wife 
is party history. Were it private talk only it would 
be indelicate to mention it, but everyone who has 
ever come in friendly contact with this couple know 
of it. 

He is too keen a man not to know that the strong 
face of his wife shows a woman of sound judgment, 
of wide-mindedness, of a good insight into men and 
affairs and the causes that condition both, for him 
not to make her his confidante and helpmate. 

That cool-headed judiciousness in judging the 
world, which was transmitted into her veins by her 
clear-minded father, comes not amiss in the states- 
man's wife. The person worth observing is observed 
by Mrs. McKinley. 

The advantages she has been given as wife of a 
public man and the advantages fate gave her of 



MKS. ]\rcKl.\LKV AT HOME 34;) 

remaining quiet and not wasting lier vitality in flit- 
ting to and fro, have developed that inborn trait to 
a wonderful degree — to an alarming degree, I should 
say, to the person who wished to gain by deceiving her. 

HER WINNING PERSONALITY. 

But this knowledge of the world does not tend in 
the smallest to harden the face. It gives firmness to 
sweetness, purpose to tenderness, power behind at- 
traction. 

Between the level, black eyebrows that divide the 
two color lines of gray eyes and gray hair, there is 
not a wrinkle or frown. Nothing but disposition 
has done this thing. 

She is temperamentally inclined not to worry, and 
the sign is there on the smooth, white forehead. 
The absence of any line is a special conundrum to 
those whose grievances have been slighter, perhaps, 
but whose command over self has been less. 

I asked an old friend of Mrs. McKinley's if the 
latter's temper was always as equable as that day. 
It had been severely tried. 

The day was hot, callers had been constant since 
eleven in the morning, and it was then five, a good 
dozen of visitors from out of town had remained to 
luncheon, among whom were Mark Hanna, ex-Sec- 
retary Proctor, from Vermont ; Judge and Mrs 
Speers, from California; and several other equallv 
talked-of personages, at which table Mrs. McKinley 
had presided. 



350 MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 

" Yes," said the friend, " I've never seen lier pet- 
tish in my life. That slie sometimes gets exceed- 
ingly weary goes without saying, but she seemed to 
have schooled herself out of that common heritaae 
of woman — the desire to be cross and unreasonable 
when tired." 

"AVhy, even Avlien I get a cold in my head," said 

the wife of an army officer, "I get simply snappish, 

just as all other women do, and my husband says 

warningly, ' Remember Mrs. McKinley, dear,' and I 

at once am ashamed of myself." 

HER FAVORITE IS^OOK. 

I spoke of the favorite place in the McKinley 
home. It is around a great window that looks on a 
neighbor's house and the side terrace, while the two 
French windows in front open on the wide veranda 
which leads down to a spacious terrace. 

Mrs. McKinley 's chair is drawn near the bow 
window. The nearby table is a feature of the room. 
It is the one exhibited at the World's Fair in the 
Ohio Building, made of handsome Ohio woods, and 
afterward presented to the Governor and his wife. 

It is exceedingly large and beautifully carved, 
with great claw feet. On it lie the periodicals of 
the day, the mounted and framed photograph of the 
Governor's horse, " Midnight," cabinets of beautiful 
women and sandwiched everywhere, bowls and vases 
of glorious roses. 

I should not say the roses were " sandwiched," 



MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 351 

for all else were pushed aroinul to iniike room for 
the splendid June beauties tliat friends keep this 
corner abundantly supplied with. 

One great vase of them was sent by the fair grad- 
uates to whom the Governor had presented diplomas 
the night before. And one massive jar of the most 
superb red ones were just unpacked, sent by a Phila- 
delphia florist, asking that they might have the 
honor of being named " the Mrs. McKinley," as 
they were a new variety. 

This room is furnished in simple but artistic taste. 
This is more of a living room than a sitting room. 

The pictures are mostly of femily and friends. 
Mr. and Mrs. McKinley, Sr., are there, and Mr. and 
Mrs. Saxton. President and Mrs. Hayes in a double 
frame are mounted on an easel, and Mrs. McKinley 
pointed out to me the small daguerreotypes of the wee 
one that died, and of her husband and herself when 
they began life in an unpretentious way, but even 
then with " dreams of future greatness in the eye." 

Autograph pictures of great artists in the literary 
and musical world dot the cosily papered walls, and 
the fine piano — also rose-covered — shows the mu- 
sical taste of the hostess. 

Behind this sitting-room is Mrs. McKinley's sleep- 
ing apartment. It is furnished daintily in old Chip- 
pendale and brass couch with hangings of French 
cretonne. The toilet table is loaded with lovely 
silver articles and long windows open out on more 
green grass. 



352 MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 

III truth, there is no outlook in summer from the 
McKinley home where the eye doesn't meet verdure 
and flowers. 

As to the dining-room, one glance at the long 
dining- table verifies what Fred, the colored major- 
domo of the Governor, would tell you, that " the 
family is two, but the table is set for twelve." 
This shows the hospitality of the home. 
If Mrs. McKinley becomes mistress of the White 
House, I don't believe any exigencies in the social 
life will be too nuicli for her, accustomed, as she is, 
to constant entertaining. And her entei'taining, 
mind you, is not confined to their Canton home. 
Mrs. McKinley goes everywhere the Governor goes, 
and all over America she has boundlessly entertained 
and been entertained. 

Some one spoke of her possible White House duties. 
She shook her head and laughed. 

" I've tried that once," she said, " and have ever 
since said I never wanted any longer duration of it. 
I was Lady of the White House for two weeks dur- 
ing Mrs. Hayes's absence. 

" Mrs. Hayes and I had always been on most 
cordial terms, and I was as often at the AVliite House 
as she at our hotel. So she persuaded me to stay 
there during a fortnight of unavoidable absence on 
her part during the season. And I repeat, the posi- 
tion is no slight tax." 

Mrs. McKinley is an excellent hostess. She was 
either born with — although I don't believe anybody 



MRS. McKINLEY AT 11 0:\1E 353 

is — or she has leuriied the gift of listening and of 
bringing the guests out. And you ivnow if one 
proves that you are clever you are convinced of the 
cleverness of the one who does so. 

So people go away from the Governor's wife with 
a snug, comfortable conviction about the region of 
the heart that they have proved themselves most 
entertaining persons. 

Wonderful gift, isn't it ? 

But no one would laugh more at the suggestion of 
such a trait on her part than Mrs. McKinley. " But, 
my dear, I am really so interested," she would say. 

HER woman's rights. 

When I said good-by to her I almost told her 
how charming she was. I hope my eyes told it to 
her. 

In the secret recesses of my better sense I knew I 
had been lured into staying too long, and yet her 
parting graciousness was such that my sub-coating 
of conceit was gratified. That is auotlier straw which 
shows her ]30wer of making friends. 

Going down the terrace, where the men portion of 
the callers sat on garden chairs, taking their ease 
while they talked on matters of quivering import- 
ance, I turned back to get a last glimpse of the 
favorite corner. 

The setting sun touched the rose petals into pris- 
matic colors and glinted on the yellow curls of a 
baby caller seated in one of tlie little chairs 



354 MES. McKINLEY AT HOME 

Mrs. McKinlej sat in her large chair ; in her firm 
white hand she held a great-heui'ted crimson rose ; 
on her shoulder was lightly laid the hand of the man 
of the hour ; back of her stood several powers in the 
affairs of the nation. 

And I knew that whatever the political creed of 
those men, they believe in woman's rights — the right 
of their chivalry and tenderness and loyalty and de- 
votion and homage to such a wide-minded, great- 
hearted, fine-souled lady. 

Of such is the kingdom of woman. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 

The organization and speeches of the presiding oflicers — Tlie plat- 
form — The nominating speeches and ballots nominating the 
candidates for President and Vice-President. 

THE delegates to the Kepublican National 
Convention of 1896, assembled at St. Louis 
certain that the nomination of the President 
had been made by their constituents. William 
McKinley, of Ohio, was manifestly the choice of the 
people, because he was, more than any other man, 
identified with the protection of American industry. 
His opponents had agitated the money question — 
whether the Convention should declare for a gold 
standard by way of diversion, and as it was doubtful 
whether the explicit use of the word " gold " would 
be approved, interest centered temporarily upon that 
issue. The gathering of the delegates only increased 
the McKinley sentiment, and there were doubts 
whether the nomination for the great office would 
not be forced by acclamation. However, it was de- 
termined to make the record. The high compliment 
of the Temj^orary Chairmanship of the Convention 

355 



356 ST. LOUIS CONVENTIOJ^ 

was conferred upon C. W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, a 
Republican long of prominence in that State and 
of steadily increasing importance. His speech, upon 
taking the chair, was full of telling passages We 
find space for some of them especially forcible : 

" Under the operation of honest tariff and honest- 
money Republican laws the country grew in wealth 
and power beyond precedent. We easily outstripped 
all other Powers in the commercial race. On No- 
vember 8th, 1892, there was work for every hand 
and bread for every mouth. We had reached high- 
water mark. Labor received higher wages than 
ever, and capital was profitably and securely em- 
ployed. The national revenues were sufiicient to 
meet our obligations and leave a sur23lus in the 
treasury. Foreign and domestic trade were greater 
in volume and value than they had ever been. 
Foreign balances were largely in our favor. 
European gold was flowing toward us. But all of 
this is changed. The cause is not hard to see. A 
reaction began when it was known that the legisla- 
tive and executive branches of the government were 
to be Democratic. . . . The imperilled interests of 
the country watched and waited through the long, 
and anxious months for some settlement of the im- 
portant question. They wanted an end of uncer- 
tainty. At length the Wilson bill was adoi^ted, and 
it was characterized by a Democratic President as 
the child of ' perfidy and dishonor.' It was so bad 
that he would not contaminate his hand by signing it 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 357 

"This important law was wuiitiiig in the primary 
purpose of a revenue measure, for it failed to pro- 
vide adequate revenue to meet the requirements of 
the Government. The deliciency thus far amuunts 
to some $95,000,000. The end is not yet, for the 
deficiency grows day by day. This leaves the Treas- 
ury and public credit in constant peril. Our foreign 
credit is impaired, and domestic capital feels insecure. 

" The bill struck down reciprocity, one of the 
highest achievements in American statesmanship. 
No measure was ever enacted which more directly 
advanced the interests of the American farmers and 
manufacturers than reciprocity. With its d-estruc- 
tion fell advantageous commercial agreements, under 
which their products were surely finding larger and 
profitable foreign markets, and without the surren- 
der of their own. The substitution of ad valorem 
for specific duties has opened the way for systematic 
wholesale frauds upon the Treasury, and producers 
and employers of the country. 

" Having attempted to reverse the tariff policy of 
the United States with such lamentable results, the 
Democratic party now proposes to reverse the cur- 
rency policy. It turns to the currency as the ]'>arent 
of our ills. Its effort to shift the responsibility will 
deceive no one. Its attacks upon the tariff, its 
record of inefficiency and insincerity, are a part of 
the unfortunate history of the Republic. 

" The present currency system is the fruit of Re- 
publican wisdom. It has been adequate to all our 



358 ST. LOLLS COWEXTION 

past necessities, aiul if uncorrupted, will meet our 
I'uture requirements. Our greatest prosperity was 
attained when Ile]-.ublican currency laws were in full 
operation. ' Wlien tiie Eepublican party was in 
power our currency was good ; it was made as good as 
the best on tlie globe. We made sound money ; and 
we also made an honest protective tariff to go with 
it. Sound money and an honest protective tariff go 
hand in hand together, not one before the other. 

" The very foundation of a sound currency system 
is a solvent Treasury. If the people doubt the in- 
tegrity of the Treasury they will question the 
soundness of the currency. Recognizing this funda- 
mental fact, the Republican party always provided 
ample revenue for the Treasury. When in the last 
half-century of our history did the Democratic party 
advocate a financial policy that was in the best in- 
terests of the American people ? Look at its ante- 
bellum currency record, consider its hostility to the 
currency rendered necessary by the exigency of war, 
and later, its effort to inflate the currency in a time of 
peace by the issue of greenbacks. Witness its oppo- 
sition to the efforts of the Re2:)ublican party to resume 
specie payments. But four short years ago it declared 
for a retui-n to the old discredited bank currency." 

On the second day of the Convention the Hon. 
John M. Thurston was chosen Permanent Chairman, 
with a Vice-President from each State. The address 
by the Permanent Chairman was one of the marked 
features of the Convention. 



ST. LULIS L'U.W'KN riOxH 359 

He said : 

''Gentlemen of the Convention: The happy 
memory of your kindness and confidence will abide 
in my grateful heart forever. My sole ambition is 
to meet your expectations, and I ])ledge myself to ex- 
ercise the important powers of this higli office with 
absolute justice and impartiality. I Ijcspcak your 
cordial co-operation and support, to the end that our 
proceedings may be orderly and dignified, as befits 
the deliberations of the supreme council of the 
Republican party. 

" Eight years ago I had the distinguished honor 
to preside over the Convention which nominated the 
last Republican President of the United States. 
To-day I have the further distinguished honor to 
preside over the Convention which is to nominate 
the next President of the United States. This o-en- 
eration has had its object lesson, and the doom of the 
Democratic party is already pronounced. The 
American people will return the Republican [)ar{y 
to power because they know that its administration 
will mean : 

" The supremacy of the Constitution of the United 
States. 

"The maintenance of law and order. 

" The protection of every American citizen in his 
right to live, to labor, and to vote. 

"A vigorous foreign policy. 

"The enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine. 

" The restoration of our merchant marine. 



360 ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 

" Safety under the Stars and Strij^es on every sea, 
in every port. 

" A revenue adequate for all governmental ex- 
penditures and the gradual extinguishment of the 
National debt. 

" A currency ' as sound as the Government and 
as untarnished as its honor,' whose dollars, whether 
of gold, silver or paper, shall have equal purchasing 
and debt-paying power with the best dollars of the 
civilized world. 

" A protective tariff which protects, couj^led with 
a reciprocity which reciprocates, securing Ameiican 
markets for American ^^roducts and o^^ening Ameri- 
can factories to the free coinage of American muscle. 

" A pension policy just and generous to our living 
heroes, and to the widows and orphans of their dead 
comrades. 

"The government supervision and control of 
transportation lines and rates. 

" The protection of the people from all unlawful 
combinations and unjust exactions of aggregated 
capital and corporate j^ower. 

" An American welcome to every God-fearing, lib- 
erty-loving, Constitution-respecting, law-abiding, 
labor-seeking, decent man. 

" The exclusion of all whose birth, whose blood, 
whose conditions, whose teachings, whose practices 
would menace the permanency of free institutions, 
endanger the safety of American society, or lessen 
the opportunities of American labor. 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 



3G1 



" The abolition of sectionalism — every sta/ in tlio 
flag shining for the honor and welfare anJ happiness 
of every conmionwealth and of all the people. 

" A deathless loyalty to all that is truly American 
and a j^atriotism eternal as the stars." 

The first trial of strength between the supporters 
of McKinley and his opponents was on the ordering 
the previous question on the report of the Committee 
on Credentials. McKinley affirmative and th« op- 
position negative — the States voting : 



States. 


Yeas. 


Nays. 


States. 


Yeas. 


Nays. 


Alabama, . 


. . 19 


3 


New Jersey, . . 


20 


— 


Arkansas, 


. . . 16 


— 


New York, . . . 


18 


52 


California, 


. . . 7 


10 


North Carolina, . 


m 


H 


Colorado, 


. . . — 


8 


North Dakota, . . 







Connecticut 


, . — 


12 


Ohio, 


46 





Delaware, 


. . . — 


— 


Oregon, . . . . 


— 


8 


Florida, . 


. . . 7 


1 


Pennsylvania, . 


5 


59 


Georgia, . 


. . . 20 


6 


Rhode Islar.d, . 


— 


8 


Idaho, . . 


. . . — 


6 


South Carolina, . 


18 


— 


Illinois, 


. . . 30 


18 


South Dakota, . 


8 





Indiana, . 


. . . 27 


3 


Tennessee, . . . 


23 


1 


Iowa, . . 


. . . — 


26 


Texas, 


16 


8 


Kansas, . 


. . 20 


— 


Utah, 





6 


Kentucky, 


. . . 23 


3 


Vermont, . . . 


4 


3 


Louisiana, 


. . 11 


5 


Virginia, . . . . 


22 


1 


IMaine, . . 


. . — 


12 


Washington, . . 


8 


— 


Maryland, 


. . — 


16 


West Virginia, . 


12 


— 


Massachuset 


ts, . 2 


28 


Wisconsin, . . . 


24 


— 


Michigan, 


. . 28 


— 


Wyoming, . . . 


6 


— 


Minnesota, 


. . 18 


— 


Arizona, . . . . 


4 


2 


Mississippi, 


. . 12 


6 


New Mexico, . . 


1 


5 


Missouri, . . 


. . 20 


14 


Oklahoma, . . . 


4 


2 


Montana, . 


. . 1 


5 


Indian Territory, 


6 





Nebraska, . 


. . 16 


— 


Dist. of Columbia, 


— 


2 


Nevada, . . 


. . 1 


5 


Alaska, . . . 





2 


New Hamp? 


hire, — 


8 


Totals, . . . 


545i 


359J 



362 ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 

The decisive day of the Convention Vy'as the third, 
Thursday, the 18th. The platform was approved 
and the candidates nominated in the course of one 
session. The Rev. John B. Scott, a colored man, 
prayed briefly, beginning : " Father of all, from 
whose hands the centuries fall like grains of sand, 
we meet to-day united, free, loyal." He asked a 
blessing on the Convention and its work, and 
closed with the recital of the Lord's Prayer. His 
gift in prayer was deeply felt by the Convention. 

Senator-elect Foraker, of Ohio, Chairman of the 
Committee on Kesolutions, read the platform in a 
clear voice. 

THE PLATFORM. 

The Republicans of the United States, assembled by 
their representatives in National Convention, appeal- 
ing for the popular and historical justification of their 
claims to the bitter fruits of four years of Democratic 
control, as well as the matchless improvements of 
thirty years of Republican rule, earnestly and con- 
fidently address themselves to the awakened intelli- 
gence, experience, and conscience of their countrymen 
in tlie following declaration of facts and principles : 

For the first time since the Civil AVar the American 
people have now witnessed the calamitous conse- 
quences of full and unrestricted Democratic control 
of the government. 

It has been a record of unparalleled incapacity, dis- 
honor, and disaster. In the administrative manage- 
ment it has ruthlessly sacrificed indispensable reve- 




GENERAL LEW WALLACE. 




EX-SECRETARY OF slAlJi VaY. 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 366 

nue, eked out ordinary current running expenses 
with borrowed money, piled up the public debt 
$262,000,000 in time of peace, forced an adverse 
balance of trade, kept a perpetual menace hanging 
over the redemption fund for pawned American 
credit to alien syndicates, and reversed all the meas- 
ures and results of successful Republican rule. In 
the broad effect of its policy it has precipitated panic, 
blighted industry and trade with prolonged depres- 
sion, closed factories, reduced work and wages, halted 
enterprise, and crippled American production while 
stimulating foreign production for the American 
market. Every consideration of public safety and 
individual interest demands that the government shall 
be rescued from the hands of those who have shown 
themselves incapable of condueting it without disaster 
at home and dishonor abroad, and shall be restored 
to the party which for thirty years administered it 
with unequaled success and prosperity. 

We renew and emphasize our allegiance to the 
policy of protection as the bulwark of American 
industrial independence and the foundation of 
American development and prosperity. This true 
American policy taxes foreign products and encour- 
ages home industry ; it puts the burden of revenue 
on foreign goods ; it secures the American market 
for the American producers; it upholds the American 
standard of wages for the American workingman; 
it puts the factory by the side of the farm, and makes 
the American farmer less dependent on foreign de- 



366 ST. LOULS CONVENTION 

mand and price ; it diffuses general thrift and founds 
the strength of all on the strength of each. In its 
responsible application it is just, fair, and impartial, 
equally opposed to foreign control and domestic 
monopoly, to sectional discrimination and individual 
favoritism. 

We denounce the present Democratic party as sec- 
tional, partisan, and one-sided, and disastrous to the 
Treasury and destructive of business enterprise, and 
we demand such an equitable tariff on foreign im- 
ports which come into competition with American 
products as will not only furnish adequate revenue 
for the necessary expenses of the government, but 
will protect American labor from degradation and 
the wage level of other lands. We are not pledged 
to any particular schedule. The question of rates is 
a practical question, to be governed by the condition 
of the times and of production. The ruling and un- 
compromising principle is the protection and develop- 
ment of American lab6r and industry. 

The Republican party renews its pledge for the 
protection of all American industries against foreign 
competition, and declares its faith that the supremacy 
of the United States among the nations is the re- 
sult of such a policy. Wc l^^lieve in liberal reci- 
procity and just relation, and demand the applica- 
tion of the golden rule of commerce to all fu*»**e 
legislation affecting the tariff and the foreign trade. 
We believe the repeal of the reciprocity arrangement 
negotiated by the last Republican administration was 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 367 

a national calamity, and demand their renewal and 
extension on such terms as will equalize our trade 
with other nations, and remove the restrictions that 
now obstruct the sale of American products in the 
ports of Europe and secure new markets for the 
products of our farms, forests, and factories. 

"We favor restoring the early American policy of 
discriminating duties for the upbuilding of our mer- 
chant marine and the protection of our shipping 
in the foreign carrying trade, so that American ship- 
ping, the product of the American labor employed in 
American shipyards, sailing under the stars and 
stripes, and manned, officered, and owned by Ameri- 
cans, may regain the carrying of our foreign com- 
merce. 

The Republican party is unreservedly for sound 
money. It caused the enactment of the law pro- 
viding for the resumption of specie payments in 
1879; since then every dollar has been as good as 
gold. We are unalterably opposed to every meas- 
ure calculated to debase our currency or impair the 
credit of our country. We are, therefore, opposed 
to the free coinage of silver, except by international 
agreement with the leading commercial nations of 
the world, which we pledge ourselves to promote, 
and until such agreement can be obtained, the ex- 
isting gold standard must be preserved. All our 
silver and paper currency now in circulation must 
be maintained at parity with gold, and we favor all 
measures designed to maintain inviolably the obliga- 



3(>8 ST. LOUIS CONVEI^TION 

tioiis of the United States and all our money, whether 
paper or coin, at the present standard — the standard 
of the most enlightened nations of the earth. 

JUSTICE TO VETERANS. 

The veterans of the Union armies deserve and 
should receive fair treatment and generous recog- 
nition. Whenever practicable they should l)e given 
the preference in the matter of employment, and 
they are entitled to the enactment of such laws as 
are best calculated to secure the fulfillment of the 
pledges made to them in the dark days of the 
country's peril. We denounce the practice in the 
Pension Bureau, so recklessly and unjustly carried 
on by the present Administration, of reducing 
pensions and arbitrarily dropping names from the 
rolls, as deserving the severest condemnation of the 
American people. 

Our foreign policy should be at all times firm, 
vigorous, and dignified, and all our interests in the 
Western hemisphere carefully watched and guarded. 
The Hawaiian Islands should be controlled by the 
United States, and no foreign power should be per- 
mitted to interfere with them ; the Nicaragua Canal 
should be built, owned, and operated by the United 
States, and, by the purchase of the Danish Islands, 
we should secure a proper and much-needed naval 
station in the West Indies. 

The massacres in Armenia have aroused the deep 
sympathy and just indignation of the American 



ST. LOUIS COXVENTION 3tit) 

people, and we believe that the United States should 
exercise all the influence it can properly exert to 
bring these atrocities to an end. In Turkey American 
residents have been exposed to the gravest dangers, 
and American property destroyed. There, and 
everywhere, American citizens and American prop- 
erty must be absolutely protected at all hazards and 
at any cost. 

We reassert the Monroe Doctrine in its full ex- 
tent, and we reaffirm the right of the United States 
to give the doctrine effect by responding to the ap- 
peals of any American State for friendly interven- 
tion in case of Euroi^ean encroachment. We have 
not interfered, and shall not interfere, with the 
existing possessions of any European Power in this 
hemisphere, but those possessions must not, on any 
pretext, be extended. We hopefully look forward 
to the eventual withdrawal of the European Powers 
from this hemisphere, and to the ultimate union of 
all of the English-speaking part of the continent by 
the free consent of its inhabitants. 

From the hour of achieving their own indepen- 
dence, the people of the United States have regarded 
with sympathy the struggles of other American 
peoples to free themselves from European domination. 
We watch with deep and abiding interest the heroic 
battle of the Cuban patriots against cruelty and op- 
pression, and our best hopes go out for the full suc- 
cess of their determined contest foi- libertv. The 
government of i^pnin, hnving 1«.«1 <-(Mifrol of Cuba, 



370 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 



and being unable to protect the property or lives of 
resident American citizens, or to comply with its 
treaty obligations, we believe that the government 
of the United States should actively use its influence 
and good offices to restore peace and give indepen- 
dence to the island. 

The peace and security of the republic, and the 
maintenance of its rightful influence among the 
nations of the earth, demand a naval power commen- 
surate with its position and responsibility. We there- 
fore favor the continued enlargement of the navy 
and a complete system of harbor and seacoast de- 
fenses. 

For the protection of the equality of our American 
citizenship and of the wages of our workingmen 
against the fatal competition of low-priced labor, we 
demand that the immigration laws be thoroughly 
enforced and so extended as to exclude from en- 
trance to the United States those who can neither 
read nor write. 

The Civil Service law was placed on the statute 
book by the Republican party, which has always 
sustained it, and we renew our repeated declarations 
that it shall be thoroughly and honestly enforced 
and extended wherever practicable. 

We demand that every citizen of the United 
States shall be allowed to cast one free and unre- 
stricted ballot, and that such ballot shall be counted 
and returned as cast. 

We proclaim our unqualified condemnation of the 



ST. J.Ul IS COWKX'! .ON 371 

uncivilized and barbarous practices well known as 
lynching or killing of human beings, suspected or 
charged with crime, without process of law. 

We favor the creation of a National Board of 
Arbitration to settle and adjust differences which 
may arise between employers and emj^loyed engaged 
in intestate commerce. 

We believe in an immediate return to the free 
homestead policy of the Republican party, and urge 
the passage by Congress of the satisfactory fi-ee 
homestead measure which has already passed the 
House and is now pending in the Senate. 

We favor the admission of the remaining Terri- 
tories at the earliest practicable date, having due 
regard to the interests of the people of the Terri- 
tories and of the United States. All the Federal 
officers appointed for the Territories should be selected 
from bona fide residents thereof, and the right of 
self-government should be accorded as far as prac- 
ticable. 

AVe believe the citizens of Alaska should have 
representation in the Congress of the United States, 
to the end that needful legislation may be intel- 
ligently enacted. 

We symjDathize with all wise and legitimate efforts 
to lessen and prevent the evils of intemperance and 
promote morality. 

The Republican party is mindful of the rights 
and interests of women. Protection of American 
industries includes equal opportunities, equal pay 



3T2 ST. LUULS COxVVENTlON 

for equal work, and protection to the home. We 
favor the admission of women to wider spheres of 
usefuhiess, and welcome their co-operation in rescuing 
the country from Democratic and Populistic mis- 
management and misrule. 

Such are the principles and policies of the Repub- 
lican party. By these principles we will abide, and 
these policies we will put into execution. We ask 
for them the considerate judgment of the American 
people. Confident alike in the history of our great 
party and in the justice of our cause, we present our 
platform and our candidates in the full assurance 
that the election will bring victory to the Republican 
party and prosperity to the people of the United 
States. 

Senator Teller's retirement was ceremonious and 
he had a good deal to say. Tlie reply of Foraker 
was to move to lay Teller's substitute on the table, 
The substitute was : 

" We, the undersigned members of the Committee 
on Resolutions, being unable to agree with that part 
of the majority report which treats of the subjects 
of coinage and finance, respectfully submit the fol- 
lowing paragraph as a substitute therefor : 

" ' The Republican jiart}^ favors the use of both 
gold and silver as equal standard money, and pledges 
its power to secure the free, unrestricted, and inde- 
pendent coinnge of gold and silver at our mints at 
the ratio of 16 parts of silver to 1 of gold.' " 

This was laid on the table by the following vote: 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 



r>'.'> 



States 
Alabama, 
Arkansas, 
California, 
Colorado, . 
Connecticut, 
Delaware, 
Florida, . 
Georgia, . 
Idaho, . . 
Illinois, 
Indiana, . 
Iowa, . . 
Kansas, . 
Kentucky, 
Louisiana. 
Maine, . . 
Maryland, 
Massachusetts, 
Michigan,, 
Minnesota, 
Mississippi, 
Missouri, . 
Montana, . 
Nebraska, 
Nevada, 
New Hampshire, 

Totals, . . 



Ayes. 
15 
15 
3 

12 
6 
6 

23 

47 
30 
26 
16 
20 
16 
12 
16 
30 
27 
18 
18 
33 

16 



Nay* 
7 
1 
15 



States. 
New .lersey, . . 
New York, . . . 
North Carolina, • 
North Dakota, . 

Ohio, 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania, 
Rhode Island, . 
South Carolina, . 
South Dakota, . 
Tennessee, . . . 

Texas, 

Utah, 

^'ermont, .... 
Virginia, . . . . 
WaH'.iingtoii, . . 
"W^st Virtiinia, . 
AViscon^in, . . . 
"Wyoming, . . . 
Arizona, . . . 
New Mexico, . . 
Oklahoma, . . . 
Indian Territory, 
Dist. uf Columbia, 
Alaska, 



Ayes. 
20 
72 

6 
46 

8 
64 

8 
18 

6 

23 
30 



19 

8 

12 

24 



Nays, 



Hi 



818J 105J 



The financial plank was adopted by the same vote. 

This was followed by a solemn protest and the seces- 
sion of the extremists. 

The silver delegates who retired from the hall 
were Congressman Hartman, of Montana ; Senator 
Cannon, Congressman Allen and Delegate Thomas 
Kearns, of Utali ; Senator Pcttigrew, of Sontli 
Dakota; Delegates Cleveland and Strother, of Ne- 
vada. From Idaho the entire delegation of six, 



374 ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 

headed by Senator Dubois ; from Colorado, the 
entire delegation of eight, including Senator Teller. 
They carried with them their standard marking 
their position in the hall. The total number of 
those who " bolted " was twenty-one, including four 
Senators and two Representatives. 

These gentlemen represented those who have been 
holding up Congress for some time to force their 
silver scheme as a rider. Senator Mantle, of Mon- 
tana, remained, and said : 

" We reserve the right to the Republicans of the 
State of Montana to accept or reject at such time 
and in such manner as they may determine the 
platform and the candidates put before them by this 
Convention." 

Senator Brown, of Utah, said : 

^^Mr. Chairman : The delegation from Utah does 
not bolt. [Cheers.] We do not believe that the 
Republican party is the oppressor of the people, but 
the guardian of liberty and the protector of honest 
government. [Applause.] Three of our delegation 
have gone, and I am here to express our sorrow at 
their departure. We have asked them to remain ; 
and we shall never cease to regret their departure. 
[Cries of ' Good !' and cheers.] We have three dele- 
gates left and three alternates — Messrs. Rogers, 
Green, and Smith — all true to the old party, and 
Avho are as loyal to its principles and as fixed as the 
everlasting mountains where we live. [Cheers.] 

" In saying this, we still remain true to the prin- 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 375 

ciples of free gold and free silver at the old rates. We 
do not believe this qnestion can be settled by votes 
in a Convention. The test of time can only settle 
it, and we believe when it shall be settled in this 
way it will be for the reinstatement of silver as the 
constitutional money. But I i)romised not to speak 
on this subject. There is one greater issue before 
the American people, one to which the Republican 
party was pledged years and years ago. You luive 
promised to the people of the United States an 
American tariff [cheers], an American issue. [Re- 
newed cheers.] You must send })rotection to every 
shipowner and every shipmaker. You must send pro- 
tection to the farmer, to the manufacturer, and I say 
to you that Utah, or at least a part of it, will en- 
deavor to help you in that cause." [Cheers.] 

Senator Brown finished by asking that the three 
alternates he had named be allowed to sit in the 
Convention in place of the delegates who had left. 

The Chairman said unless objection was made this 
would be ordered. 

No dissenting voice being raised, the three alter- 
nates — Lyndsey Rogers, Web Green, and A. Smith 
— were seated as delegates from Utah. 

. The Chair next recognized Mr. Burleigh, of 
Washington. 

Mr. Burleigh, speaking from the platform said: 
"The young State of Washington yields her place 
for patriotic devotion and loyal allegiance to this 
Government and the tenets of this party to none. 



37(] 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 



We did not come here for inspiration on the silver 
question. We brought our insiDiration with us. We 
believe in the single gold standard because we be- 
lieve that the money which pays the banker in 
Wall Street his interest is none too good to pay the 
laborer in Montana." Then he added that with 
Protection, Reciprocity, and the chosen standard- 
bearer, William McKinley, Washington would give 
a good account of herself in November. This was 
the first time McKinley's name had been publicly 
mentioned in the proceedings, and it was received 
with cheers. 

The States were then called for the choice of mem- 
bers of the National Committee, and the following 
names were sent up : 



Alabama — William Young- 
blood. 

Arkansas — Powell Clayton. 

California— J. D. Spreckels. 

Colorado — Not elected. 

Connecticut — Samuel Fessen- 
den. 

Delaware— James H. Wilson. 

Florida— John G. Long. 

Georgia — J. W. Lyons. 

Idaho— Not elected. 

Illinois -T. N. Jamieson. 

Indiana— W. T. Durbin. 

Iowa— W. B. Cummings. 

Kansas— Cyrus Leland, Jr. 

Kentucky — J. W. Yerkes. 

Louisiana — A. T. Wilberly. 

Maine — .Joseph H. Manley. 

Maryland — George L. Wel- 
lington. 



Massachusetts— George H. Ly- 
man. 

Michigan — George L. Maltz. 

Minnesota — L. F, Hubbard. 

Mississippi — ^J. Hill. 

Missouri— R. C. Kerens. 

Montana — Charles R. Leonard. 

Nebraska — John M. Thurston. 

Nevada— Not elected. 

New Hampshire — Person F. 
Cheney. 

New Jersey — Not elected. 

New York— F. S. Gibbs. 

North Carolina — James E. 
Boyd. 

North Dakota— W. H. Rob* 
inson. 

Ohio — Charles L. Kurtz, 

Oregon — George A. Steele. 

Pennsylvania — M. S. Quay. 



ST. L0U1« CONVENTION 377 

Rhode Island— General C. R. ' Wisconsin — Henry C. Payne. 
Brayton. I Wyoming — Willis Vandeveii' 



South Carolina — E. A. Webster. 
South Dakota— A. B. Kittredge. 
Tennessee — Elects after the 

convention adjourns. 
Texas — John Grant. 
Utah— 0. J. Saulsbury. 
Vermont. — Geor<re T. Childs. 
Virginia— George E. Bowden. 
Washinjiton— P. C. Sullivan. 



ter. 

District uf Columbiii — Di^'adluck. 

Arizona — Postponed until Ter- 
ritorial Convention. 

New Mexico — Elects after the 
convention. 

Oklahoma— Henry E. Asp. 

Indian Territory— Leo E. Ben- 
nett. 



West Virginia- B. N. Scott. ' Alaska— Deadlock. 

The first name presented for nomination was that 
of Senator Allison by B. M. Baldwin, oC Council 
Bluffs. He said : 

"J/r. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention : 
There is one, but only one, of those whose names 
will be presented to this Convention who can claim 
that there has been placed for him in history's 
golden urn an estimate of his character and worth 
made by him on whom Nature stamped her royal 
seal ; God exhibited as His greatest design of Amer- 
ican manhood, genius, statesmanship, and patriot- 
ism ; who now in Heaven wears a crown of death- 
less praise, and whose great soul is a portion of 
eternity itself, James G. Blaine. Blaine writing to 
Garfield, said: 'Then comes Allison. He is true, 
kind, reasonable, fair, honest, and good. He is 
methodical, industrious, and intelligent, and would 
be a splendid man to sail along with smoothly and 
successfully.' 

•'Complying with the request of the Iowa delega- 
tion, I rise to propose to this Convention the nom- 



■^7S ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 

iuatiou of him to whom this heritage was be- 
queathed, William B. Allison, and to ask you to 
make it on the Old and New Testament of Repub- 
licanism. 

" It takes a big man to represent the State of Iowa 
in the Congress of the United States for thirty-five 
years, but Senator Allison is that man. With the 
most perfect knowledge of the details of all our 
political laws and their histories, with that states- 
manlike judgment which distinguishes the essential 
from the accidental and the immutable from the 
transitory, * with every look a cordial smile, every 
gesture a caress,' yet with the spirit of such firm 
mold and purpose that no bribe or feast or palace 
could awe or swerve, he has, for thirty-five years, 
upon the floor of the House and Senate been fight- 
ing for the interests of the people, carrying onward 
and upward the Nation's legislative work ; turning 
cranks out of place, unsphering the culminating 
stars of Democracy, unmasking hidden purposes of 
corrupt measures, until now he holds the place of 
ungrudged supremacy in the legislative halls of that 
most splendid of Capitols." 

This speech was a very clever presentation of 
public policy. 

Senator Lodge, of Massachusetts, presented the 
name of the Hon, T. B. Reed, saying ; 

" Four years ago we met as we meet now, repre- 
senatives of the great Republican party. Prosperity 
was in the land. Capital was confident and labor 



ST. LOUIS COWKNTIO.V ;):!i 

employed. There was the good day's wage for tlie 
good day's work, and the spirit of American enter- 
prise was stirring and bold. The treasury was full, 
the public revenues ample for the public need. We 
were at peace with all the world, and had placed a 
prudent hand on the key of the Pacific. Foui- short 
years have come and gone. Look about you now. 
The treasury is empty. Our credit is impaired. Our 
revenues are deficient. We meet the public needs, 
not with income, but by borrowing at high rates and 
pledging the future for the wants of the present. 
Business is paralyzed. Confidence has gone. En- 
terprise has folded its eagle wings and mopes and 
blinks in the market-place. Our mills are idle and 
our railroads crippled. Capital hides itself and 
labor idly walks the street. There is neither a good 
day's wage nor a good day's work. We have met 
with slights abroad and have curious differences with 
other nations. The key of the Pacific has slipped 
from nerveless hands. Foreign troops have been 
landed in this hemisphere. Our own boundaries 
have been threatened in Alaska. The trouble was 
the Democratic party had been in power." 

The Senator continued : 

" The Democrats deceived the peoj^le by promising 
them the millennium, and the miserable results of 
those lying promises are all about us to-day. We 
have no promises to make. We pledge ourselves 
only to that which we believe we can perform. We 
will do our best. That is all. And as in 1860 we 



•ISO ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 

saved the Union and abolislied slavery, so now in 
1893 we will deal with this Democratic legacy of 
bUmders, bankruptcy, and misfortune. 

" We are gathered here to choose the next Presi- 
dent of the United States. That we will win in the 
election no man doubts. But let us not deceive our- 
selves with the pleasant fancy that the campaign is 
to be an easy one. It will be a hard battle ; it can- 
not be otherwise when so much depends on the result. 
Against the Republican party, representing fixed 
American policies, strength, progress, and order, will 
be arrayec^ not only that organized feature, the 
Democratic party, but all the wandering forces of 
political chaos and social disorder. 

" We want a President who, on the 5th day of 
next March, will summon Congress in extra session, 
and, refusing to make appointments or to deal with 
patronage, will say that all else must wait until Con- 
gress sends to him a tariff which shall put money in 
the Treasury and wages in the pockets of the American 
workingmen. We want a President who will protect 
at all hazards the gold reserves of the Treasury ; who 
will see to it that no obligation of the Government 
is presented which is not paid in whatever coin the 
creditor chooses to demand, and who will never for- 
get that the nation which pays with honor borrows 
with ease. 

" We want a man who' will guard the safety and 
dignity of the Nation at home and abroad, and 
who will always and constantly be firm in dealing 




HON. WILLIAM P. FEYE. 




S. p. DOLE, EX-PRESIDENT HAWAIIAN REPUBLIC. 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 3«3 

with foreign nations, instead of suddenly varying 
a long course of weakness and indifference with a 
convulsive spasm of vigor and patriotism. Above 
all, we want a man who will lead his party and act 
with it, and who Avill not, by senseless quarrels 
between the Wliite House and the Capitol, reduce 
legislation and execution alike to imbecility and 
failure." 

The Senator said of Mr. Reed : 

"I have seen him with a maddened opposition 
storming about him carry through that great reform 
which has made the House of Representatives the 
strong and efficient body it is to-day. I have seen 
him during the last winter guide a great majority so 
that they have met every demand put upon them, 
and made no errors which could burden the Repub- 
lican party in the campaign before us. 

" Before the people and in the House he has ever 
been the bold and brilliant champion of the great 
Republican policies which, adopted, have made us 
prosperous, and abandoned, have left ruin at our 
doors. He is a thorough American, by birth, by 
descent, by breeding ; one who loves his country, 
and has served it in youth and manhood, in war and 
in peace. His great ability, his originality of thought, 
his power in debate, his strong will are known of all 
men, and are part of the history of the last twenty 
years. His public career is as spotless as his private 
character is pure and unblemished. He is a trained 
statesman, fit for the heaviest tasks the country can 



384 ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 

impose upon liim. He coramauds the confidence of 
his party and his country. He is a leader of men. 
We know it because we have seen him lead. To 
those who have followed him he never said ' Go,' 
but always * Come.' He is entirely fearless. We 
know it, for we have seen his courage tested on a 
hundred fields. He has been called to great places, 
and to great trials, and he has never failed nor 
flinched." 

Mr. Depew's nomination of Governor Morton was 
a fine stroke of literary work. Mr. Depew said : 

"No party, no matter however glorious its achieve- 
ments or how brilliant its successes, can rely upon 
the past. Its former triumphs are only its certificates 
of character, which must be met by continuing effort 
as beneficent and wise as anything of which it boasts. 
The party which is to permanently govern a country 
and is secure in its past must not only be equal to 
the present, but must forecast and provide for the 
future. 

" We meet to take up the broken cord of National 
development and ha|)piness and link it once more to 
the car of progress. Our industries stagnant, our 
manufactures paralyzed, our agriculture disheartened, 
our artisans unemployed, our finances disordered, our 
Treasury bankrupt, our credit impaired, our position 
among the nations of the world questioned, all look 
to this Convention and call upon its wisdom for hope 
and rescue. 

"The whole country, North, South, East, and 



ST. LOUIS eO.NVl'lX'noN' 385 

We.st, witliuut any division in our lines, or out ul* 
lliem, stands, after what has happened in the last 
three years, for the protection of American indus- 
tries, for the principle of reciprocity, and for America 
for Americans. But a compact neighborhood of great 
commonwealths, in which are concentrated the ma- 
jority of the population, of the manufactures, and 
of the industrial energies of the United States, has 
found that business and credit exist only with the 
stability of sound money. 

*' It has become the fashion of late to decry busi- 
ness as unpatriotic. We hear much of the ' sordid 
considerations of capital,' * employment,' ' industrial 
energies,' and ' prosperous labor.' The United 
States, differing from the mediaeval conditions which 
govern older countries, differing from the militarism 
which is the curse of European nations, differing 
from thrones which rest upon the s^vord, is pre-emi- 
nently and patriotically a commercial and a business 
nation. Thus commerce and business are synony- 
mous with patriotism. When the farmer is afield 
sowing and reaping the crops which find a market 
that remunerates him for his toil ; when the laborer 
and the artisan find work seeking them and not 
themselves despairing of work ; when the wage of 
the toiler promises comfort for his family and hope 
for his children ; when the rail is burdened with the 
product of the soil and of the factory ; when the 
spindles are humming and the furnaces are in blast ; 
when the mine is putting out its largest product 



3S€ ST. LOUIS CONVEKTION" 

and the national and individual wetilth are aoiistantly 
increasing; when the homes owned, unmortgaged, 
by tlie people are more numerous day by day and 
month by month ; when the schools are most crowded, 
tlie fliirs most frequent, and happy conditions most 
universal in the nation, then are the promises fulfilled 
which make these United States of America the home 
of the oppressed and the land of the free. 

" It is to meet these conditions, and to meet them 
with a candidate who represents them and about 
whom there can be no question, that New York pre- 
sents to you for the Presidency, under the unanimous 
instructions of two successive Republican State Con- 
ventions, the name of her Governor, Levi P. Morton." 

Mr. Depew said of Mr. Morton : 

" He is the best type of the American business man 
— that type which is the ideal of school, the academy, 
and the college ; that type which the mother presents 
to her boy in the AVestern cabin, and in the Eastern 
tenement, as she is marking out for him a career by 
which he shall rise from his poor surroundings to 
grasp the prizes which come through American 
liberty and American opportunity, 

" You see the picture. The New England clergy- 
man on his meagre salary, the large family of boys 
and girls about him, the sons going out with their 
common schovol education, the boy becoming the 
clerk in a store, then granted an interest in the busi- 
ness, then becoming its controlling spirit, then claim- 
ing the attention of the great house in the city and 



ST. L0UT8 COXVEXTIOX 387 

called to a partuershii), then himself the master of 
great affairs. Overwhelmed by the incalculable con- 
ditions of Civil War, but with undaunted energy 
and foresight, he grasped again the elements of 
escape out of bankruptcy and of success, and with 
the return of prosperity he paid to the creditors who 
had com})romised his indebtedness every dollar, prin- 
cipal and interest, of what he owed them. The best 
type of a successful business man, he turns to politics, 
to be a useful member of Congress ; to diplomacy, to 
be a successful minister abroad ; to the executive 
and administrative branches of government, to be 
the most popular Vice-President and the presiding 
officer of that most august body, the Senate of the 
United States. 

" Our present deplorable industrial and financial 
conditions are largely due to the fact that while we 
have a President and a Cabinet of acknowledged 
ability, none of them have had business training or 
experience. They are persuasive reasoners upon in- 
dustrial questions, but have never practically solved 
industrial problems. They are the l^ook farmers 
who raise wheat at the cost of orchids and sell it at 
the price of wheat. With Levi P. Morton there 
would be no deficiency to be met by the issue of 
bonds, there would be no blight on our credit which 
would call for the services of a syndicate, there 
would be no trifling with the delicate intricacies of 
finance and commerce which would paralyze the 
operations of trade and manufacture. 



388 ST. LOUIS COXVENTION" 

" Whoever may be nominated by this Convention 
will receive the cordial support, the enthusiastic ad- 
vocates of the Republicans of New York, but in the 
shifting conditions of our Commonwealth, Governor 
Morton can secure more than the party strength, and 
without question in the coming canvass, no matter 
what issues may arise between now and November, 
place the Empire State solidly in the Republican 
column." 

In placing McKinley in nomination, ex-Governor 
and Senator-elect Foraker said : 

" Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : 
It would be exceedingly difficult, if not entirely im- 
possible, to exaggerate the disagreeable situation of 
the last four years. The grand aggregate of the 
multitudinous bad results of a Democratic National 
Administration may be summed u]) as one stupen- 
dous disaster. It has been a disaster, however, not 
without, at least, this one redeeming feature — that it 
has been fair ; nobody has escaped. [Loud laughter.] 

" It has fallen equally and alike on all sections of 
the country and on all classes of our people, the just 
and the unjust, the Republican and the Democrat, 
the rich and the poor, the high and the low have 
suffered in common. Poverty and distress have 
overtaken business; shrunken values have dissipated 
fortunes ; deficiencies of revenue have impoverished 
the government, while bond issues and bond syndi- 
cates have disci-edited and scandalized the country. 

" Over against that fearful penalty is, however, to 



ST. LOLLS COW LXrioX ;j8!J 

be set down out* great, blessed eompeiisatory result 
— it bas destroyed tlie Democratic party. [Clieers 
and laugbter.] The proud colunuis vvbieli SAvept tbe 
country in trluinjib in 1892 are broken and Jiopeless 
in 1896. Tiieir boasted principles wben put to tbe 
test have proved to be dehisive fallacies, and tlieir 
great leaders luive degenerated into Avarring clileftains 
of petty and irreconcilable factions. Tbeir approach- 
ing National Convention is but an approaching 
National nightmare. No man pretends to be able to 
predict any good result to come from it. And no man 
is seeking the nomination of that Convention except 
only the limited few who have advertised their un- 
litness for auy kind of a public trust by proclaiming 
their willingness to stand on any sort of a platform 
that may be adopted. [Laughter.] 

" The truth is, the party which would stand up 
under the odium of human slavery, opi)Osed to the 
war for the j^reservation of the Union, to emancipa- 
tion, to enfranchisement, to reconstruction and to 
specie resumption is at last to be overmatched and 
undone by itself. It is writhing in the throes and 
agonies of final dissolution. No human agency can 
prevent its absolute overthrow at the next election, 
except only this Convention. If we make no mistake 
here, the Democratic })arty Avill go out of jioAver on the 
4tli day of March, 1897 [applause], to remain out of 
power until God, in His infinite wisdom, mercy, and 
goodness shall see fit once more to chastise His people. 
[Loud laiighter and applause.] 
29 



390 ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 

"So far we have not made any mistake. We 
have adopted a platform which, notwithstanding 
the scene witnessed in this hall this morning, meets 
the demands and expectations of the American people. 

" It remains for us now, as the last crowning act 
of our work, to meet again that same expectation 
in the nomination of our candidates. What is that 
expectation ? What is it that the people want ? They 
want as their candidate something more than ' a 
good business man ' (an allusion to Mr. Depew's 
characterization of Governor Morton). They want 
something more than a popular leader. They want 
something more than a wise and patriotic statesman. 
They want a man who embodies in himself not only 
all these essential qualifications, but those, in addi- 
tion, which, in the highest possible degree, typify in 
name, in character, in record, in ambition, in pur- 
pose, the exact opposite of all that is signified and 
represented by that free-trade, deficit-making, bond- 
issuing, labor-assassinating, Democratic administra- 
tion. [Cheers.] 

[Twenty-five minutes were occupied by the au- 
dience at this point cheering for McKinley.] 

Resuming, the orator eulogized the champions of 
Republicanism (Mr. Blaine with the greater em- 
phasis), with great fervor and closed: 

" But, greatest of all, measured by present require- 
ments, is the leader of the House of Representatives, 
the author of the McKinley bill, which gave to labor 
its richest awards. No other name so compietely 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 3!) J 

meets the requirements of tlie occasion, and no other 
name so absolutely commands all hearts. The shafts 
of envy and malice and slander and lihel and detrac- 
tion that have been aimed at him lie broken and 
harmless at his feet. The quiver is empty, and he is 
untouched. That is because the people know him, 
trust him, believe in him, love him, and will not 
permit any human power to disparage him unjustly 
in their estimation. 

" They know that he is an American of American- 
ists. They know that he is just and able and brave, 
and they want him for President of the United States. 
[Applause.] They have already shown it — not in 
this or that State, nor in this or that section, but in 
all the States and in all the sections from ocean to 
ocean, and from the gulf to the lakes. They expect 
of you to give them a chance to vote for him. It is 
our duty to do it. If we discharge that duty we will 
give joy to their hearts, enthusiasm to their souls, 
and triumphant victory to our cause. [Applause.] 
And he, in turn, will give us an administration 
under which the country will enter on a new era of 
prosperity at home and of glory and honor abroad, 
by all these tokens of the present and all these 
promises of the future. In the name of the forty- 
six delegates of Ohio, I submit his claim to your 
consideration." [More applause.] 

Senator Thurston, of Nebraska, was recognized by 
Temporary Chairman Hepburn, and seconded the 
nomination of McKinley. He spoke as follows • 



392 ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 

"J/r. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Conven- 
Hon: This is the year of the people. They are 
conscious of their power ; they are tenacious of their 
rights ; they are supreme in this Convention ; they 
are certain of victory now in November. 

" Tliey have framed the issue of this campaign. 
What is it? Money? Yes, money! Not that 
which is coined for the mine-owner at the Mint or 
clipped by the coupon-cutter from the bond, but that 
which is created by American muscle on the farms 
and in the factories. The Western mountains clamor 
for silver and the Eastern seashore cries for gold, 
but the millions ask for work — an opportunity to 
labor and to live. 

STANDS FOR ALL THE STATES. 

" The prosperity of a nation is in the employment 
of its people, and, thank God ! the electors of the 
United States know this great economic truth at last. 
The Republican party does not stand for Nevada or 
New York alone, but for both ; not for one State, but 
for all. Its platform is as broad as the land, as 
national as the flag. Republicans are definitely com- 
mitted to sound currency ; but they believe that in a 
government of the people the welfare of men is 
paramount to the interests of money. Their shib- 
boleth for this campaign is ' Protection.' From the 
vantage-ground of their own selection, they cannot 
be stampeded by Wall Street panics or free-coinage 
cyclones. Reports of international complications 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION ;39;3 

and rumors of war pass them liglitly by ; they know 
that the real enemy of American prosperity is free 
trade and the best coast defense is a protective tariff. 
They do not fear the warlike preparations of Europe, 
but they do fear its cheap manufactures. Their real 
danger is not from foreign navies carrying guns, but 
from foreign fleets bringing goods. 

" This is the year of the people. They have risen 
in their might. From ocean to ocean, from lake to 
gulf, they are united as never before. We know 
their wishes and are here to register their will. 
They must not be cheated of their choice. They 
know the man best qualified and equipped to fight 
their battles and to win their victories. His name 
is in every heart, on every tongue. His nomination 
is certain, his election sure. His candidacy will 
sweep the country as a prairie is swept by fire. 

THE YEAR OF THE PEOPLE. 

" This is the year of the people. In their name, 
by their authority, I second the nomination of their 
great champion, AVilliam McKinley. Not as a fa- 
vorite son of any State, but as the favorite son of the 
United States. Not as a concession to Ohio, but as 
an added honor to the Nation. 

" When this country called to arms, he took into 
his boyish hands a musket and followed the flag, 
bravely baring his breast to the hell of battle, that 
it might float serenely in the Union sky. For a 
quarter of a century he has stood in the fierce light 



394 ST. LOUIS CO>;VEXTION 

of public place and liis robes of office are spotless as 
the driven snow. He has cherished no higher 
ambition than the honor of his country and the 
welfare of the plain people. Steadfastly, courage- 
ously, victoriously, and with tongue of fire he has 
pleaded their cause. His labor, ability, and perse- 
verance have enriched the statutes of the United 
States with legislation in their behalf. All his con- 
tributions to the masterpieces of American oratory 
are the outpourings of a pure heart and a patriotic 
purpose. His God-given powers are consecrated to 
the advancement and renown of his own country and 
to the uplifting and ennobling of his own country- 
men. He has the courage of his convictions and 
cannot be tempted to woo success or avert defeat by 
any sacrifice of principle or concession to popular 
clamor. 

STEADFAST IN THE HOTJR OF GLOOM. 

" In the hour of Republican disaster, when other 
leaders were excusing and apologizing, he stood 
steadfastly by that grand legislative act which bore 
his name, confidently submitting his case to the 
iudsment of events, and calmlv waiting for that 
triumphal vindication whose laurel this Convention 
is impatient to place upon his brow. 

" Strengthened and seasoned by long Congressional 
service, broadened by the exercise of important ex- 
ecutive powers, master of the great economic ques- 
tions of the age, eloquent, single-hearted, and sincere, 



ST. L0U1« CONVENTION 396 

h« stands to-day the most conspicuous and oom- 
manding character of this generation, divinely or- 
dained, as I believe, for a gr*---*^. mission, to lead this 
people out from the shad.^^: >f adversity into the 
sunshine of a new and enduring prosperity. 

" Omnipotence never sleeps. Every great crisis 
brings a leader. For every supreme hour Providence 
finds a man. The necessities of '96 ai-e almost as 
great as those of '61. True, the enemies of the 
Nation have ceased to threaten with the sword, and 
the Constitution of the United States no longer tol- 
erates that shackles shall fret the limbs of men, but 
free trade and free coinage hold no less menace to 
American progress than did the armed hosts of 
treason and rebellion. If the voice of the people is 
indeed the voice of God, then William McKinley is 
the complement of Abraliam Lincoln. Yea, and he 
will issue a new Emancipation Proclamation to the 
enslaved sons of toil, and they shall be lifted up 
into the full enjoyment of those privileges, advan- 
tages, and opportunities that belong of right to the 
American people. 

THE FLAG WILL NEVER BE HAULED DOWN. 

" Under his Administration he shall command the 
respect of the nations of the earth ; the American 
flag will never be hauled down ; the rights of Ameri- 
can citizenship will be enforced ; abundant revenues 
provided ; foreign merchandise will remain abroad ; 
our gold be kept at home ; American institutions 



;396 ST. LOULS C'ONVEXTION 

will be cherished and upheld ; all governmeutal ob- 
ligations scrupulously kept, and on the escutcheon 
of the Republic will be indelibly engraved the 
American policy — 'Protection, Reciprocity, and 
Sound Money.' 

" My countrymen, let not your hearts be troubled ; 
the darkest hour is just before the day ; the morning 
of the twentieth century will dawn bright and clear. 
Lift up your hopeful faces and receive the light ; the 
Republican party is coming back to power, and 
William McKinley will be President of the United 
States. 

" In an inland manufacturing city, on election 
night, November, 1894, after the wires had confirmed 
the news of a sweeping Republican victory, two work- 
ingmen started to climb to the top of a great smoke- 
less chimney. 

" That chimney had been built by the invitation 
and upon the promise of Republican protective 
legislation. In the factory over which it towered 
was employment for twice a thousand men. Its 
mighty roar had heralded the prosperity of a whole 
community. It had stood a cloud by day and a 
pillar of fire by night for a busy, industrious, happy 
people. Now bleak, blackened, voiceless, and dis- 
mantled, like a grim spectre of evil, it frowned down 
upon the hapless city, where poverty, idleness, stag- 
nation, and want attested the complete disaster of 
the free-trade experiment. 



ST. LOi:iS CO.WEXTION 397 



UNFURLED THK KMJiLKM OF HOPE. 

« 

"Up and up niul u[> they climbed, watched ]\v the 
breathless multitude below. Up nnd up and up, un- 
til at last they stood upon its summit ; and there in 
the glare of the electric lights, cheered by the 
gathered thousands, they unfurled and nailed an 
American flag. Down in the streets strong men 
wept — the happy tears cf hope — and mothers, lifting 
up their babes, inyoked the blessing of the Hag ; 
and then impassioned lips burst forth in song — the 
hallelujah of exulting hosts, the mighty psean of a 
people's joy. That song, the enthusiastic millions 
yet sing. 

" Hurrah ! Hurrah ! we bring the jubilee ; 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the flap that makesa ns free ; 

So we sing the chorus from the mountains to the sea ; 

Hurrah for McKinley and Protection. 

" Oyer the city that free flag wayed, caressed by 
the pa.ssing breeze, kissed by the silent stars. And 
there the first glad sunshine of the morning fell 
upon it, luminous and lustrous with the tidings of 
Republican success. 

" On behalf of those stalwart workmen, and all the 
vast army of American toilers ; that their employ- 
ment may be certain ; their wages just, their dollars 
the best in the civilized world : on behalf of that 
dismantled chimney, and the deserted factoiy at its 
base ; that the furnaces may once more flame, the 



398 «T. L0U18 CONVENTION 

mighty wheels revolve, the whistles scream, the an« 
vils ring, the spindles hum ; on behalf of the thou- 
sand cottages round about, and all the humble 
homes of this broad land ; that comfort and con- 
tentment may again abide, the firesides glow, the 
women sing, the children laugh ; yes, and on behalf 
of that American flag and all it stands for and rep- 
resents ; for the honor of every stripe, for the glory 
of every star ; that its power may fill the earth and 
its splendor span the sky, I ask the nomination of 
that loyal American, that Christian gentleman, 
soldier, statesman, patriot, William McKinley." 

Governor Hastings, of Pennsylvania, nominated 
Senator (]uay. The Governor said : 

" Pennsylvania comes to this Convention, giving 
you the cordial assurance that, whoever may be our 
National standard-bearer, he will receive of all the 
States in the Union the largest majority from the 
Keystone State. There have been no faltering foot- 
steps in Pennsylvania when the tenets of Repub- 
licanism have been at stake. 

" Pennsylvania comes to this Convention and, with 
great unanimity, asks you to name a standard-bearer 
who will represent not only the principles and con- 
ditions, but the brightest hopes and aspirations of 
the Republican party ; a man who has been a loyal 
supporter of its every great movement; a potent 
factor in its councils from the day of its birth and 
baptism on Pennsylvania soil to the present time ; a 
man whose every vote and utterance has been upon 




tfUBAT HALSTEAB. 




THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET. 
^t T.on^ CoDvriKhted 1897 by Purdy of Boston ) 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 401 

the side of sound money, fair protection, and a strong 
and patriotic Americanism. 

" Called to lead a forlorn hope in the great cam- 
paign of 1888, he wrought a task equal to the six 
labors of Hercules. He organized the patriotism 
and Republicanism of the country for victory. He 
throttled the Tammany tiger in his den, and, forcing 
an honest vote and an honest count in the strong- 
hokl of the most powerful and corrupt political or- 
ganization in the land, rescued the country from the 
heresies of Democracy. Having thus made himself 
too powerful and too dangerous to the enemy, the 
order went forth to assassinate him, but the poisoned 
arrows of slander and vituperation, thrown in bitter 
and relentless hatred, fell broken at his feet. He 
turned to the people among whom he lived and 
whose servant he was, and his vindication at their 
hands was a unanimous re-election to the Senate of 
the United States. 

"There, representing imperial Pennsylvania and 
her interests, he stood like a rock, resisting the com- 
bined power of a free-trade President and party, 
until the deformity known as the Wilson bill was 
altered and amended so as to save at least some of 
the business interests of his State and country from 
entire and utter ruin. We welcome the issue — 
American protection, American credit, and an 
American policy. Let the people in the campaign 
which this Convention inaugurates determine w^iether 
they are still willing to live through another free- 



402 ST. LOUIS CONVENTION" 

trade panic. Let the wage-earner and the wage- 
payer contemplate the bitter experiences which 
brouoht hiiiisfcr to the home of one and financial 
ruin to the other. Let the American farmer com- 
pare farm-product prices with free-trade promises. 
Let him who has saved a surplus and him who 
works for a livelihood determine, each for himself, 
if he craves to be paid in American dollars disgraced 
and depreciated to half their alleged value. Let 
him who fought for his country's flag ; let the widow, 
the orphan, and the loving j^arent who gave up that 
which was as precious as life, behold that flag, and 
all it stands for, pawned to a foreign and domestic 
joint syndicate to raise temporary loans for the 
purpose of postponing the final financial disaster, 
and answer whether they want the shame and 
humiliation repeated. Let the sovereign voice be 
heard in the coming election declaring that the 
only government founded on the rock of free- 
dom, blessed with every gift of nature and crowned 
with unmeasured possibilities, shall not be de- 
throned, degraded, paujDcrized by a pai'ty and a 
policy at war with the very genius of our National 
existence. 

" Nominate him who I now name, and this coun- 
try will have a President whose mental endowments, 
broad-minded statesmanship, ripe experience, mar- 
velous sagacity, unassuming modesty, knightly 
courage, and true Americanism are unexcelled. 
Nominate him and he will elect himself. I name 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 



403 



to you tlie soldier and the statesman, Pennsylvania's 
choice — Matthew Stanley Quay." 



THE VOTE FOR PRESIDENT. 



StJiTBH. 

Alabama, 

Arkansas, 

California, 

Colorado, . 

Connecticut 

Delaware, 

Florida, 

Georgia, 

Idaho, . 

Illinois, 

Indiana, 

Iowa. 

Kansas, 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine, . . 

Maryland, 

^lassachusetts 

Michigan, 

Minnesota, 

Mis;?issippi, 

^Ii?souri, 

♦Montana, 

Nebraska, 

Nevada, . 

New Hampshire 

New Jersey, 

New York, 

North Carolina, 

North Dakota, 

Ohio, .... 

Oregon, . . . 

Pennsylvania, 

Rhode Island, 

South Carolina, 



16 
3 

19 
17 

m 

6 
46 



18 



9 . 



2 



CAM" 
McKiNLKY. Morton. Quay. Keed Allison, ekon. 

10 1 — 2 — — 

16 — — — — — 

18 — — — — — 



7 — — 5 — — 

6 2 — — — — 

22 2 

46 — — 

30 — — — — 

— — — — 26 
20 — — — — 
26 — — — — 
11 — * 4 I 

— — — 12 — 
15 — — 1 — 

1 — — 29 — 

28 — — — — 

18 — — — — 

17 — 1 — — 

34 — — — — 






8 — 
1 — 



— — 2h 






404 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 



MCKINLEY MOETON. QUAY. REED. 



States. 

South Dakota, 8 

Tennessee, 24 

Texas, 21 

. . 3 

, . . 8 

... 23 

. . 8 

. . 6 

. . 12 

, . . 24 

, . . 6 

. . 5 

, . . 4 

. . 6 



Cam< 

ALLia(»7. EBON. 



Utah, 

Vermont, 

Virginia, 

Washington, . . . . 

Arizona, 

West Virginia, . . . 

Wisconsin, 

Wyoming, 

New Mexico, . . . . 
Oklahoma, .... 
Indian Territory, • . 
District of Columbia, 
Alaska, 



Totals, 661J 






— — 1 






58 



* Blank— 4. 

Necessary for choice, 454. Total number delegates present, 906. 



8 — 
8 — 



6U 84J 35^ 



THE COMMITTEE OF NOTIFICATION. 



Alabama— C. D. Alexander. 
Arkansas — H. M. Cooper. 
California — Frank Miller. 
Colorado— Bolted. 
Connecticut — George Sykes. 
Delaware — Henry C. Morse, 

H. A. Dupont. 
Florida — Dennis Eagan. 
Georgia— M. B. Morton, M. J. 

Doyle. 
Idaho— Bolted. 
Illinois — C. H. Deere, E. L. 

Wood 
Indiana — Hiram Brownlee, 

Jesse Weeks. 
Iowa— Calvin Manning, 0. M. 

Junkin. 
Kansas — Nathaniel Barnes. 



Kentucky — J. P. McCartney. 
Louisiana — Walter S. Cohen. 
Maine — C. E. Townsend. 
Maryland — Wm. F. Airey. 
Massachusetts — M. V. B. Jef- 
ferson, W. J. Hale. 
Michigan— T. J. O'Brien. 
Minnesota — Monroe Nichols, 

A. E. Davidson. 
Mississippi — W. D. Frazee. 
Missouri — T. B. Haughawout, 

B. F. Leonard. 
Montana — Unorganized. 
Nebraska — John T. Beessler. 
Nevada — J. H. Bressler. 

New Hampshire — William D. 

Sawyer. 
New Jersey — F. W- Roebling. 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION 



405 



New York — Fnink Iliscock, 
Lispenaid Stewart, 

Noura Cakolina — L. M. Ber- 
nard, John H. Ilanna. 

NouTn Dakota— Deferred. 

Oirio— M. A. Hanna. 

Okegox— Charles Hilton. 

Pkxnsylvania — Theodore I, 
Flood, H. S. Denny. 

Rhode Island— John C. San- 
born. 

South Carolina — Edmund H. 
Deas, C. J. Pride. 

SoirrH Dakota— W. Sniedc. 

Tennessee —Ernest Cold well. 

Texas— J. W. Butler. 

Utah — Lindsay Rodgers. 

Vermont — James W. Brock. 



ViR(iiNiA— J. S. Browning, H. 
T. Hubbard. 

Washington — Henry L. Wil- 
son. 

West Virginia— U. N. Lynch, 
T. E. Houston. 

Wisconsin— M. C. Ring, J. E. 
Rt)ehr. 

Wyomino— H. C. Nickerson. 

DisTKirr OF Columbia — Dead- 
lock. 

Arizona — John W. Dorrington. 

New jNIexico — Pedro Pera. 

Oklahoma — John A. Buckler. 

Indian Territory — Joseph R. 
Faltz. 

Al^vska — C. S, Johnston. 



Where one name occurs in the above list of the 
members of the Notification Committee, the repre- 
sentative acts on both committees. When two names 
occur the first will visit the Presidential nominee 
and the second the nominee for Vice-President. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

McKINLEY ON THE DAY OF HIS NOMINATION. 

His good nerve and thoughtful courtesies — He was quiet through the 
storm and gave the good news with kisses to his wife and 
mother. 

JUNE 18tli, 1896, was an ideal June day at Can- 
ton ; the air full of golden sunshine. The ex- 
pectation and strain of excitement of the people, 
who have a passionate admiration and affection for 
Major McKinley, were unmistakable, but they waited 
with the supreme dignity of confidence. 

Major McKinley was awakened rather early from 
a sound sleep by the clicking of the telegraph in- 
struments in his office making an unusual clamor 
that penetrated the walls, but his eye glowed with 
energy, there was a fiery spark under his dark, 
shaggy brows, and the fine, strong lines of his mouth 
were accentuated. The day was not far advanced 
when a group of newspaper men gathered on the 
shady porch of the Major's residence, which seems 
to be in the midst of a vast park, adorned with 
pleasant homes, standing in glossy lawns and amidst 
lovely trees. 

406 



DAY OF NOMINATION 407 

There was keen competition between the Western 
Union and Postal Telegraph Companies and the 
Long Distance Telephone, transmitting the Con- 
vention news to the Major, and he was quietly seated 
in a rocking-chair, slowly swinging and chatting, 
and as the telegrams were handed him, he coolly 
scanned them, repeated their substance — often the 
exact words — in unconcerned tones explained them 
upon inquiry, and, after elucidation, passed them on 
to otliers. It was noticeable that he frequently re- 
ceived confidential messages — and, of course, did not 
share them with his visitors. 

The intervals were filled with conversation, in 
which the Major related anecdotes of the National 
Conventions, and of Mr. Blaine and the great Ke- 
pnblicans of other days, and the newspaper veterans 
drew from him old recollections. 

He followed intently the story of the silver seces- 
sion, recognizing the parliamentary situation point 
by point, and concisely explaining the entanglement. 

His fiice was very serious and stern when listening 
to the account of the retirement of some of the silver 
States, and broke into a smile, winning as the glance 
of a boy, as the announcement was made of the alter- 
nates taking the places of the fugitives ; and there 
was an expression of pleasure from him when the 
Montana man stood up and stuck to the Convention, 
and spoke for his State in terse and ringing terms. 

There were many callers, and the Major was atten- 
tive to all, remembering the names of acquaintances. 



408 DAY OF NOMINATION 

asking apt and incisive questions, and commending 
every sign of patience and the presence of a spirit 
of conciliation in the Convention. He forgot noth- 
ing that was courteous and appropriate, and was as 
hearty and thoughtful as if holding a reception of 
inconsiderable im^^ort. 

The enthusiasts of the early business hours of the 
eventful day were flitting about in the forms of de- 
lightful young ladies, wearing breezy and bright 
spring suits, and they had joyous faces and walked 
as if to dancing music. They were the people who 
had no doubts of the fortunes of the day. 

As the Major rocked on his porch, enjoying the 
freshness of the air that was balmy, though touched 
with fire, the carriages that clattered down the broad 
street filled with people, all contained persons who 
recognized the hero of the day, and he returned their 
salutes with his accustomed urbanity and manner, at 
once graceful and stately. 

Ladies of the family came up the walk from the 
street to the house, with serious faces, and as the 
Major rose to greet them he asked, " Is mother com- 
ing up to-day?" And the answer was, "Yes, she 
will be here." 

All old friend near the Major appeared to be dis- 
turbed at the protracted discussions, as it seemed, of 
the silver and gold question, and the Major said, 
" Why, Judge, you seem to be impatient. If you 
show so much anxiety I shall have to console you." 
The Major did not allow any word that was tinged 



PAY OF XOMIXATIOX 409 

with fault-liiuliiig- relating to proceedings at St. Louis 
to pass witliout dissent, and remarked the Conven- 
tions were all, in many ways, alike; and he acted up 
constantly to the spirit of his last words to Mark 
Hanna as that succe^^sful man was setting forth, 
conquering and to conquer, for St. Louis — the 
Major's final woi'd \vas: "Your duty now is one of 
conciliation." This has been the policy of McKinley 
throughout. 

About one o'clock a carriage drove up and three 
ladies descended, the Major hastening forward to greet 
them. The venerable woman, with Roman features, 
was the Major's mother, and with her were his sisters. 

About tAvo o'clock there was lunch, Mrs. 
]\IcKinley at the head of the table. She has, 
happily, improved in health, and her conversation 
sparkled with a sweet and pensive but pronounced 
personality. She has not been in favor of the Presi- 
dential business. Of course, she wants her husband 
to win now, but she would rather he had not been 
drawn into the stream of events that is bearing him 
on to higher destinies, for the tendency of the great 
office will be to absorb the Major's attention, so that 
she can hardly, however great his devotion, have all 
the time in his society she would fondly claim as her 
own. 

Daring luiieli the telegrams continued to come, and 
one from an ohl friend was full of congratulations by 
anticipation, and called attention to two texts of 
Scripture. 



410 



DAY OF DOMINATION 



There was at once curiosity to read the passages, 
and Mrs. McKinley's Bible was brought. A gentle- 
man at the table said that, of course, Mr. McKinley's 
Bible could be known to him only by the cover, 
as he was too busy a man to get acquainted with the 
inside. Mrs. McKinley said, in a spirited way, " He 
does, indeed, know the inside of his Bible — no man 
better, I assure you ; and I speak that which I do 
know." 

The texts that had been solemnly called to the 
Major's attention were the following: 

Jeremiah xx, 11 : " But the Lord is with me as a 
mighty terrible one ; therefore my persecutors shall 
stumble, and they sh^ll not prevail ; they shall be 
greatly ashamed, for they shall not prosper ; their 
everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten." 

Psalms xlvii, 6 : " Sing praises to God, sing praises ; 
sing praises unto our King, sing praises." 

These remarkable passages were read by a lady 
and their fitness to the occasion commented upon by 
the guests. The Major was silent, but he no doubt 
thought his persecutors were stumbling and would 
not prevail and should be greatly ashamed. 

It had been the jirevalent presumption up to this 
time that there would be a recess after the platform 
was adopted, and that the nominating speeches spun 
out so as to throw the nomination into the night. 

But lunch had hardly been concluded when the 
St. Louis news, through the long distance telej^hone 
and both wires simultaneously told that the fight was 



DAY OF NOMINATION 411 

on to a finish — that the rush of events had been has 
tened, and the crisis was close at hand. 

McKinley's office, to which he now repaired, is 
adorned with i)ortraits of Lincohi and Grant and 
Mrs. McKinley, a fine scene of a battery in a hot 
engagement, and some personal friends. 

When it was announced that the nominating- 
speeches were about to be made, the Major took his 
seat in a heavy arm-chair, beside his working desk, 
with a pad of paper in his left hand and a pencil in 
his right. Behind him was the telephone ap2:)aratus 
with an expert, connected direct with the Convention 
Hall. Thus there were three avenues of lightning- 
line service between the Major's office and the Con- 
vention Hall — the Postal and Western Union, and 
the Long Distance Telephone. 

The Major's face was grave. There were deep 
fires in his eyes, and his intellectual pallor, always 
noticeable, now gave his features the stern grac-e of 
carved marble. It is a fancy founded on fact that 
Major McKinley looks like. Napoleon, but to-day he 
looked marvelously like Daniel AYebster. 

The warm reception of Senator Lodge by the 
Convention elicited an expression of sympathy from 
the Major, who expressed his sense of the wonderful 
fact that, though so far from the Convention, we 
were yet so near, and knew absolutely as mucli of 
the j)roceedings, precisely as they occuri-ed, as if we 
were bodily present. I mentioned to the INIajor that 
my experience warranted the observation that I fe new 



4n DAY OF XOMINATION 

more of the Convention in the seat by his side than 
when in a reporter's seat in Convention Hall. 

Suddenly there came word almost at the same 
moment through the three wires, that Ohio had 
been called and that Foraker making his way to 
the platform and was received with tremendous 
cheering, also that the hall was flooded with sun- 
shine, welcoming the soldier-bo}'- son of Ohio, about 
to nominate another soldier-boy and son of the mod- 
ern mother of Presidents. The two boy-soldiers 
were famous ex-Governors of their State. 

The word came in a moment that Foraker was 
about to speak. IMcKinley was asked Avhether For- 
aker's speech w-as probably prepared, and the Major 
said it was not, he suj^posed, written, but Foraker 
knew very well the main things he was about to say, 
and was a keen, brilliant man, who knew how to 
make the best of the opportunities on the spot. The 
occasion for the inquiry as to the preparation For- 
aker had made was that one of the correspondents 
present had seen several of the nominating speeclies 
in type and gave interesting information as to their 
length and character. 

The young ladies in the parlor across the hall from 
the office had a look in wdiich glee and distress were 
comically mingled, and the Major walked up to 
them, saying with gayety, " Are you young ladies 
getting anxious about this affair?" 

They admitted that they were really nervous. 
The^ Major reassured them, and took his big chair, 



■•-JiCSr. 



DAY OF NOMINATION 413 

placing his silk hat on an adjacent table, and *relaps- 
ing into meditation. For a minute his pale, fixed 
features showed he was thinking, i)erliaps as much of 
the far-off i)ast as of the near and rising future, and 
no one disturbed his day dream. This was just as 
Foraker was waiting for the storm of apjilause that 
greeted him to subside, so as to be allowed to go on 
with his speech. 

It was at 3.21 o'clock, according to all the watches 
in the Major's room, when word came that at that 
moment Foraker pronounced the name of McKinley, 
and then came the tornado of applause, which lasted 
for nearly half an hour. There w^as a pause at our 
end of the wire, and the Major joined in exchange 
of recollections with the veterans about the contests 
in cheering that distinguished the Convention of 1880 
at Chicago, between the supporters of Grant and those 
of Blaine — the most celebrated of all the contests in 
cheering. 

The Major stepped to the telephone and listened to 
the roar of the Convention at St. Louis. He heard 
it distinctly, and, following his example, we could 
make out a vast tumult, struck through witli sliril! 
notes. It was like a storm at sea, with wild, fitful 
shrieks of wind. 

As time passed, and Foraker could not still the 
tempest he had raised, some one said he might not 
be able to regain the thread of his speech, and the 
Major remarked it was hard on a speaker to be held 
up in that way — it was like stopping a race liorso in 



414 DAY OF NOMINATION 

full career. But the Major said Foraker would come 
out of such a scene in triumph, and referred with 
warm admiration to his " gem of a speech " at the 
late Republican State Convention. 

The monotony of waiting was broken by a telegram 
from an unknown source, giving McKinley assur- 
ance that he " would be nominated on the first 
ballot. " This raised a laugh, but the Major only 
smiled, and made a suggestion as to the happening 
of the unexpected and the marvels of disappoint- 
ment. " You may all, after all, find yourselves 
much mistaken at last," said the Major, gravely, 
as if in warning not to tempt Providence by being 
too sure. 

Telegrams poured in, and the Major read them 
and directed they should be given to those outside 
the house — where were a dozen very old friends and 
twice that number of members of the press. The 
Major at this supreme hour directed the placing of 
chairs for new arrivals, and had greater self-com- 
mand than anybody else. He showed his training 
in war and peace— and as he held up telegrams in 
one hand to read, there was not a flutter of the thin 
sheets to tell a tale of nervousness. 

The message came, " Foraker is trying to resume 
his speech," and at this there was a smile. In an- 
other minute the telephone expert repeated Foraker's 
Vfords about McKinley when he resumed. "You 
seem to have heard of him before." 

"Ah," said the Major, "that is like him. He 



1 



DAY OF X0MIXATl(3X 415 

knows vyhat he is doing, and is all ?-iglit. The inter- 
ruption will not shake his s|)eech." 

The Ohio men with the Governor laughed im- 
mensely at the stories hy the tri[)le wires of Mark 
Hanna and Bushnell and Grosvenor and Foraker 
hugging and fanning eacli other and yelling like 
maniacs. Surely mercy and ^^eace have kissed each 
other, and the year of jubilee has come ! 

There was a laugh over Depew's humorous illus- 
tration of the famous saying, touching the silver 
secessionists, of the celebrated phrase, " erring sis- 
ters, depart in peace." 

There was some levity about the effort of Penn- 
sylvania to make a noise over Quay's presentation 
equal to that which welcomed McKinley's name, but 
the face of the Major — which was growing earnest as 
the moment approached for the call of the roll of 
States for the ballot — gave no encouragement to per- 
sonal reflections. Wlien it was mentioned that Gov- 
ernor Hastings had spoken, some one said to the tele- 
plione expert : " Ask how long the Quav applause 
lasted." 

*' No, no !" said the Major. " Do not ask that ques- 
tion," and it was not asked. 

There were a few minutes in which it was known 
that the call of the roll for balloting was the immi- 
nent order of exercises, and the air in McKinley's 
office grew sultry and still. There was heat and 
silence. McKinley picked up his 2)ad and pencil, 
and proposed to heep an account of the vote. He 



416 DAY OF NOMINATION 

evidently then in fancy floated far away, and was in 
solitude, and hummed for a few moments the air 
of an old song. It was so soft and low that few 
heard it, and then it was no more and was like a 
dream within a dream — something quaint, almost 
mystical, an echo of music, perhaps, of the long ago. 
It did not occur to me at the moment what it was, 
but it is interesting that it was the Scotch war song 
that Burns ennobled and immortalized in his Ban- 
nockburn, " Scots whom Bruce has often led." 

Moments passed, and then the Major whistled 
two or three bars two or three times, quietly, un- 
consciously. Suddenly the silence was abruptly 
broken by the announcement: Alabama, 18 for 
McKinley." 

Then figures came thick and fast, and challenges 
followed of the votes of several States. 

Two or three present did not know what that 
meant, and the Major, clearly and carefully, with 
perfect command of every point raised, stated the 
situation. 

" But why," the question was asked, " do they 
challenge the votes of States whose votes are not 
contested ?" 

" It is necessary," the Major explained, " that gen- 
tlemen should go upon the record if tliey care to do 
so," and he added, " there are disputes between the 
deleo-ates and the chairmen of delegations who 
announce the figures, and it can only be settled by 
polling tk-^ vote of the State." 




I MILITARY HEROES OF SANTIAGO AND POKXO UICO. 

Pteo of Roosevelt Copyrighted bv Rockwood.) 
PliiO Of Shafter Copyrighted by Chas. Parker.) 




NAVAL HEROES OF SANTIAGO. 
(Photo of Hobson Copyrighted by Falk.) 



DAY OF NOMINATION 4l9 

The voice of the Major was not heard, a profound 
silence ensued, when the telephone gave forth, " the 
Alabama vote sustained." The Major smiled, and 
then, as the votes for him swelled into hundreds, he 
kept the count without a change of countenance — 
not even when the Ohio man next to him said r 
" The Ohio vote, now to be thrown in two or three 
minutes, w^ill nominate you with a margin of a dozen, 
and that will please Ohio." 

The recording angel, in the guise of a beautiful 
young lady in the hall, claimed that the Major's vote 
was more than it had been represented, and he 
quickly responded: "Be careful what you claim. 
We must have a fair count." 

One of the veterans asked, repeatedly : " AYhere 
is Idaho ?" and there were inquiries for other Statas. 

The Major explained that some of the States had 
gone out, and there might be cases not covered by 
alternates. 

" Possibly, Sam," said the Major to the telephonist, 
" Idaho went out," and so on to the last, the Major 
was clear-headed, composed, cool, and decided. Not 
a tremor in hand or voice, the figures his pencil 
traced were well formed, his voice low and even, but 
his pale, strong face seemed to grow in grandeur and 
to take on an august expression of conscious, lofty 
fortune, and fearful responsibility. 

With firm fingers the Major wrote on his tab the 
fateful ballots, and the mishty vote of Ohio, 46 
strong, rolled in. The Major put that down, too, 



430 



DAY OF NOMINATION 



and did not look up or seem to be aware of all it 
exactly and conclusively meant. 

The Ohio man next him threw down his pencil, 
saying : " There, that settles it, no more figures for 
me." 

The Major looked up with an air of curiosity, say- 
ing : *' Why are you no longer interested ?" 

The reply was : " Because the thing is done ; let 
the boys cipher. The majority will be 1)ig enough. 
Major, I congratulate you. God bless you and give 
you all good gifts; and now you have just a quarter 
of a minute, before you are mobbed, to greet your 
wife and mother." 

He quickly crossed the hall to the parlor, 
crowded with ladies, and, as his wife and mother 
were seated side by side, stooped low to kiss them 
and clasp their eager hands, the wife responding 
with a bright smile and a sweet exaltation in her 
eyes, as he told her that the vote of Ohio had given 
him the nomination, and the grand old mother, 
placing a trembling hand on her son's neck, and her 
eyes streaming with tears, brighter even than smiles, 
whispered to her illustrious boy some holy words for 
him alone. 

At this moment the bells rang, the whistles blew, 
the cannon thundered, and beautiful Canton went 
stark, gloriously mad. The city, under a strong 
pressure, had kept quiet. There was a determina- 
tion that there would be nothing done prematurely. 
Now the city blazed with bunting. There were 



DAY OF NOMINATION 421 

whii-riiig carriages, galloping horses, wheel men and 
women swift as the wind ! There seemed to have 
been an organization, inchuling all the men, women, 
and children, to demonstrate instantly the moment 
the momentons signal was given. 

As I hastened to the telegraph office there was a 
vast nmltitnde precipating themselves in a gigantic, 
ungovernable procession upon Governor McKinleyns 
house, and there, with wife and mother at the win- 
dow with him, he acknowledged his gratitude to his 
neighbors first of all, and to his countrymen for their 
personal kindness, nnd liis voice had the fine tone of 
resolution and sincerity that all who know him 
know, and that they hear with joyful confidence that 
heaven has sent a man of such manliness to serve 
his country in her great office, and help her upward 
and forward to her incomparable destiny. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

MAJOR MCKINLEY ACKNOWLEDGES AND ACCEPTS HIS 
NOMINATION. 

THE letter of Major McKinley, accepting his 
nomination for the Presidency by the National 
Republican Convention, was delivered by him 
to the press for publication on the evening of August 
26. It read as follows : 

Canton, 0., August 26, 1896. 
Hon. John M. Thurston and others, members of the 

Notification Committee of the Republican National 

Convention : 

Gentlemen : — In pursuance of the promise made to 
your committee when notified of my nomination as 
the Republican candidate for President, I beg to sub- 
mit this formal acceptance of that high honor and to 
consider in detail questions at issue in the pending 
campaign. 

Perhaps this might be considered unnecessary in 
view of my remarks on that occasion and those I 
have m.ade to delegations that have visited me since 
the St. Lous Convention, but in view of the momen- 
tous importance of the proper settlement of the issues 

422 



McKIM.KYS ACCEPTANCE 423 

preyt'iited un our rutuic prosperity and istaiiding us a 
luilioii, and con. ^^^ide ring only tlie welfare and happi- 
ness ol" our people, 1 could not be content to omit 
again calling attention to the questions which in my 
opinion vitally all'ect our strength and position among 
the governments of the world and our morality, in- 
tegrity and patriotism as citizens of that Republic 
which for a century past has been the best hope of 
the world and the inspiration of mankind. 

We nmst not now prove false to our own high 
standards in government nor unmindful of the noble 
example and wise precepts of the fathers, or of the 
confidence and trust which our conduct in the past 
has always inspired. 

For the first time since 1868, if ever before, there 
is presented to the American people this year a clear 
and direct issue as to our monetary system, of vast 
importance in its effects, and upon the right settle- 
ment of which rests largely the financial honor and 
prosperity of the country. 

It is proposed by one wing of the Democratic party 
and its allies, the People's and Silver parties, to in- 
augurate the free and unlimited coinage of silver by 
independent action on part of the United States at a 
ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one ounce of gold. 

The mere declaration of this purpose is a menace 
to our financial and industrial interests and has 
already created universal alarm. It involves great 
peril to the credit and business of the country — a 
peril so grave that conservative men everywhere are 



424 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 

breaking away from their old party associations and 
uniting witli other patriotic citizens in emphatic pro- 
test against the platform of the Democratic National 
Convention as an assault upon the faith and honor 
of the Government and the welfare of the people. 
We have had few questions in the lifetime of the 
Republic more serious than the one which is thus 
presented. 

The character of the money which shall measure 
our values and exchanges, and settle our balances 
with one another and with the nations of the world, 
is of such primary importance and so far-reaching in 
its consequences as to call for the most painstaking 
investigation, and, in the end, a sober and unpreju- 
diced judgment at the polls. We must not be mis- 
led by phrases nor deluded by false theories. 

Free silver would not mean that silver dollars were 
to be freely had without cost or labor. It would 
mean the free use of the mints of the United States 
for the few who are owners of silver bullion, but 
would make silver coin no freer to the many who are 
engaged in other enterprises. 

It would not make labor easier, the hours of labor 
shorter, or the pay better. It would not make 
^arming less laborious or more profitable. It would 
not start a factory or make a demand for an ad- 
ditional day's labor. It would create no new occu- 
pations. It would add nothing to the comfort of the 
masses, the capital of the people or the wealth of the 
nation. 



It seeks to introduce a new measure of value, but 
would add no value to the thing measured. It 
would not conserve values. On the contrary, it 
would derange all existing values. It would not re- 
store business confidence, but its direct effect would 
be to destroy the little which yet remains. 

The meaning of the coinage plank adopted at 
Chicago is that anyone may take a quantity of silver 
bullion now worth fifty-three cents to the mints of 
the United States, have it coined at the expense of 
the Government, and receive for it a silver dollar 
which shall be legal tender for the payment of all 
debts, public and private. 

The owner of the silver bullion would get the 
silver dollar. It would belong to him and to nobody 
else. Other people would get it only by their labor, 
the products of their land, or something of value. 

The bullion owner on the basis of present values 
would receive the silver dollar for fifty-three cents' 
worth of silver, and other people would be required 
to receive it as a full dollar in payment of debts. 
The Government would get nothing from the trans- 
action. It would bear the expense of coining the 
silver and the community would suffer loss by its 
use. 

We have coined since 1878 more than 400,000,000 
silver dollars, which are maintained by the Govern- 
ment at parity with gold and are a full legal tender 
for the payment of all debts, public and private. 



43G McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 

How are the silver dollars now in use different from 
those which would be in use under free coinage ? 

They are to be of the same weight and fineness ; 
they are to bear the same stamp of the Government. 
Why would they not be of the same value ? I an- 
swer : The silver dollars now in use were coined on 
account of the Government, and not for private ac- 
count or gain, and the Government has solemnly 
agreed to keep them as good as the best dollars we 
have. 

The Government bought the silver bullion at its 
market value and coined it into silver dollars. Hav- 
ing exclusive control of the mintage, it only coius 
what it can hold at a parity with gold. The profit, 
representing the difference between the commercial 
value of the silver bullion and the face value of the 
silver dollar, goes to the Government for the benefit 
of the people. 

The Government bought the silver bullion con- 
tained in the silver dollar at very much less than its 
coinage value. It paid it out to its creditors, and 
put it in circulation among the people at its face value 
of one hundred cents, or a full dollar. 

It required the people to accept it as a legal ten- 
der, and is thus morally bound to maintain it at a 
parity with gold, which was then, as now, the recog- 
nized standard with us and the most enlightened 
nations of the world. 

The Government havinor issued and circulated the 
silver dollar must in honor protect the holder from 



.McIvIXl.EVS ACCKI'TAXCI-: 427 

loss. This obligation it has so far sacredly kept. 
Not only is there a moral obligation, but there is a 
legal obligation, expressed in public statute, to main- 
tain the parity. 

These dollars, in the particulars I have named, are 
not the same as the dollars which would be issued 
under free coinage. They would be the same in form, 
but different in value. 

The Government would have no part in the trans- 
action except to coin the silver bullion into dollars. 
It would share in no part of the profit. It would 
take upon itself no obligation. It would not put the 
dollars into circulation. 

It could only get them as any citizen would get 
them, by giving something for them. It would de- 
liver them to those who deposited the silver, and its 
connection with the transaction there end. 

Such are the silver dollars which would be issued 
under free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1. 
Who would then maintain the parity ? What would 
keep them at par with gold ? 

There w^ould be no obligation resting upon the 
Government to do it, and if there were, it would be 
powerless to do it. The simple truth is we would be 
driven to a silver basis — to silver monometallism. 

These dollars, therefore, would stand upon their 
real value. If the free and unlimited coinage o( 
silver at a ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one 
ounce of gold would, as some of its advocates assert, 
make fifty-three cents in silver worth one hundred 



i38 McKIXLEY'8 ACCEPTANCE 

cents, and the silver dollar equal to the gold dollar, 
then we would have no cheaper money than now, and 
it would he no easier to get. 

But that such would be the result is against reason 
and is contradicted by experience in all times and in 
all lands. It means the debasement of our currency 
to the amount of the difference between the coui- 
mercial and coin value of the silver dollar, which is 
ever changing, and the effect would be to reduce pro- 
perty values, entail untold financial loss, destroy con- 
fidence, impair the obligations of existing contracts, 
further impoverish the laborer and producers of the 
country, create a panic of unparalleled severity, and 
inflict upon trade and commerce a deadly blow. 

Against any such policy I am unalterably opposed. 

Bimetallism cannot be secured by independent 
action on our part. It cannot be obtained by opening 
our mints to the unlimited coinage of the silver of the 
world at a ratio of 16 ounces of silver to one ounce of 
gold when the commercial ratio is more than thirty 
ounces of silver to one ounce of gold. 

Mexico and China have tried the experiment. 
Mexico has free coinage of silver and gold at a ratio 
slightly in excess of sixteen and a half ounces of sil- 
ver to one ounce of gold, and while her mints are 
freely open to both metals at that ratio, not a single 
dollar in gold bullion is coined and circulated as 
money. 

Gold has been driven out of circulation in these 
countries and they are on a silver basis alone, 



McKINLF.Y'S ACCEPTANCE ^29 

Until international agreement is had, it is the plain 
duty oi' the United States to maintain the gold stand- 
ard. It is the recognized and sole standard of the 
great commercial nations of the world, witli which 
we trade more largely than any other. 

Eighty-four per cent, of our foreign trade for the 
fiscal year 1895 was with gold standard countries and 
our trade with other countries was settled on a gold 
hasis. 

Chiefly by means of legislation during and since 
1878 there has been put in circulation more than 
$024,000,000 of silver or its representative. This 
has been done in the honest effort to give to silver, if 
possible, the same bullion and coinage value, and 
encourage the concurrent use of both gold and silver 
as money. Prior to that time there had been less 
than 9,000,000 of silver dollars coined in the entire 
liistory of the United States, a period of eighty-nine 
years. 

This legislation secures the largest use of silver 
consistent with financial safety and the pledge to 
maintain its party with gold. We have to-day more 
silver than gold. This has been accomplished at 
times with grave peril to the public credit. 

The so-called Sherman law sought to use all the 
silver product of the United States for money at its 
market value. From 1890 to 1893 the Government 
purchased 4,500,000 ounces a year. Tliis was one- 
third of the product of the world and practically all 
of this country's product. 



430 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 

It was believed by those who then and now favor 

free coinage that such use of silver would advance its 
bullion value to its coinage value, but this expectation 
was not realized. In a few months, notwithstanding 
the unprecedented market for the silver produced in 
the United States, the price of silver went down very 
rapidly, reaching a lower point than ever before. 

Then, upon the recommendation of President Cleve- 
land, both political parties united in the repeal of the 
purchasing clause of the Sherman law. We cannot 
with safety engage in further experiments in this 
direction. 

On the 22d of August, 1891, in a public address, I 
said : " If we could have an international ratio, which 
all the leading nations of the world would adopt, and 
the true relation be fixed between the two metals, 
and all agree upon the quantity of silver which 
should constitute a dollar, then silver would be as 
free and unlimited in its privileges of coinage as gold 
is to-day. 

But that we have not been able to secure, and with 
the free and unlimited coinage of silver adopted in 
the United States at tlie present ratio we would be 
still further removed from any international agree- 
ment. We may never be able to secure it if we enter 
upon the isolated coinage of silver. 

The double standard implies equality at a ratio, 
and that equality can only be established by the con- 
current law of nations. It was*- the concurrent law 
of nations that made the double standard ; it will re- 



.McKIMJ'lYS ACC'Kl'TANCE VM 

quire the concurrent law of nations to reinstate and 
sustain it. 

The Republican party has not been, and is not 
now, opposed to tlie use oi' silver money, as its record 
abundantly shows. It has done all that could be 
done lor its increased use with safety and honor by 
the United States acting apart from other govern- 
ments. Tliere are those who think that it has al- 
ready gone beyond the limit of financial prudence. 
Surely we can go no further, and we must not permit 
false lights to lure us across the danger line. 

We have much more silver in use than any country 
in the world, except India or China ; $500,000,000 
more than Great Britain; $150,000,000 more than 
France; $400,000,000 more than Germany; $325,- 
000,000 less than India, and $125,000,000 less than 
China. 

The Republican party has declared in favor of an 
international agreement, and if elected President it 
will be my duty to employ all proper means to pro- 
mote it. 

The free coinage of silver in this country would 
defer, if not defeat, international bimetallism, and 
until an international agreement can be had every 
interest requires us to maintain our present standard. 
Independent free coinage of silver at a ratio of six- 
teen ounces of silver to one ounce of gold would in- 
sure the speedy contraction of the volume of our cur- 
rency. It would drive at least fivehundred millions 
of gold dollars, which we now have, permanently 



433 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 

from the trade of the country and greatly decrease 
our per capita circulation. 

It is not proposed by the Republican party to take 
from the circulating medium of the country any of 
the silver we now have. On the contrary, it is pro- 
posed to keep all of the silver money now in circula- 
tion on a parity with gold by maintaining the pledge 
of the Government that all of it shall be equal to 
gold. 

This has been the unbroken policy of the Repub- 
lican party since 1878. It has inaugurated no new 
policy. It will keep in circulation and as good as 
gold all of the silver and paper money which is now 
included in the currency of the country. It will 
maintain their parity. It will preserve their equality 
in the futute, as it has always done in the past. It 
will not consent to put this country on a silver basis, 
which would inevitably follow independent free coin- 
age at a ratio of sixteen to one. It will oppose the 
expulsion of gold from our circulation. 

If there is any one thing which should be free 
from speculation and fluctuation it is the money of a 
country. It ought never to be the subject of mere 
partisan contention. 

When we part with our labor, our products, or our 
property, we should receive in return money which 
is as stable and unchanging in value as the ingenuity 
of honest men can make it. Debasement of the cur- 
rency means destruction of values. 

No one suffers so much from cheap money as the 



McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 433 

farmers and laborers. They are tlie first to feel its 
bad efifects, and the last to recover from them. This 
has been the uniform experience of all countries, and 
here, as elsewhere, the poor, and not the rich, are 
always the greatest sufferers from every attempt to 
debase our money. 

It would fall with alarming severity upon invest- 
ments already made ; upon insurance companies and 
their policyholders; upon savings banks and their 
depositors; upon building and loan associations and 
their members; u[)on the savings of thrift; upon 
pensioners and their families, and upon wage-earners 
and the purchasing power of their wages. 

The silver question is not the only issue affecting 
our money in the pending contest. Not content with 
urging the free coinage of silver, its strongest cham- 
pions demand that our paper money shall be issued 
directly by the Government of the United States. 

This is the Chicago Democratic declaration. T!ie 
St. Louis People's declaration is that '•' our national 
money shall be issued by the General Government 
only, without the intervention of banks of issue, be 
full legal tender foi the payment of all debts, public 
and private," and be distributed '^ direct to the people 
and through lawful disbursements of the Govern- 
ment." 

Thus, in addition to the free coinage of the world's 
silver, we are asked to enter upon an era of unlimited 
irredeemable paper currency. The question which 
was fouji'lit out from 18G5 to 1879 is thus to be re- 



434 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 

opened, with all its uncertainties and cheap money 
experiments of every conceivable form foisted upon us. 

This indicates a most startling reactionary policy, 
strangely at variance with every requirement of sound 
finance ; but the declaration shows the spirit and 
purpose of those who by combined action are contend- 
ing for the control of the Government. 

Not satisfied with the debasement of our coin which 
would inevitably follow the free coinage of silver at 
16 to 1, they would still further degrade our currency 
and threaten the public honor by the unlimited issue 
of an irredeemable paper currency. 

A graver manace to our financial standing and 
credit could hardly be conceived and every patriotic 
citizen should be aroused to promptly meet and eifec- 
tually defeat it. 

It is a cause for painful regret and solicitude that 
an effort is being made by those high in the counsels 
of the allied parties to divide the people of this 
country into classes and create distinctions among us, 
which, in fact, do not exist and are repugnant to our 
form of government. 

These appeals to passion and prejudice are beneath 
the spirit and intelligence of a free people, and 
should be met with stern rebuke by those tliey are 
sought to influence, and I believe they will be. Every 
attempt to array class against class, " the classes 
against the masses," section against section, labor 
against capital, "" the poor against the rich," or interest 



McK1mj:y\s acceptance 435 

against interest in the United States is in the highest 
degree reprehensible. 

It is opposed to the national instinct and interest, 
and should be resisted by every citizen. Wo are not 
n nation of classes, but of sturd}-, free, independent 
and honorable people, despising the demagogue, and 
never capitulating to dishonor. 

This ever-recurring effort endangers popular govern- 
ment and is a menace to our liberties. It is not a 
new campaign device or party appeal. It is as old 
as government among men, but was never more un- 
timely and unfortunate than now. 

Washington warned us against it, and Webster said 
in the Senate, in words which I feel are singularly 
appropriate at this time : " I admonish the people 
against the object of outcries like these. I admonish 
every industrious laborer of this countrj- to be on his 
guard against such delusion. I tell him the attempt 
is to play off his passion against his interest, and to 
prevail on him, in the name of liberty, to destroy all 
the fruits of liberty." 

Another issue of supreme importance is that of 
protection. The peril of free silver is a menace to be 
feared ; we are already experiencing the effect of par- 
tial free trade. The one must be averted ; the other 
corrected. 

The Republican party i."s wedded to the doctrine of 
protection and was never more earne;>t in its support 
and advocacy than now. If argument were needed 
to strengthen its devotion to " the American System/' 



436 McKlNLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 

or increase the hold of that system upon the party 
and people, it is found in the lesson and experience 
of the past three years. 

Men realize in their own daily lives what before 
was to many of them only report, history or tradition. 
They have had a trial of both systems and know what 
each has done for them. 

Washington, in his Farewell Address, September 
17, 1796, 100 years ago, said : " As a very important 
source of strength and security, cherish puplic credit. 
One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly 
as possible; avoiding the accumulation of debt, not 
only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigor- 
ous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts 
which unaviodable wars may have occasioned, not 
ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden 
which we ourselves ought to bear." 

To facilitate the enforcement of the maxims which 
he announced he declared : " It is essential that you 
should practically bear in mind that toward the pay- 
ment of debts there must be revenue ; that to have 
revenue there must be taxes ; that no taxes can be 
devised which are not more or less inconvenient or 
unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment insepar- 
able from ""he selection of the proper objects (which 
is always a choice of difficulties) ought to be a decisive 
motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the 
Government in making it ; and for a spirit of acquies- 
cence in the measures for obtaining revenue which 
the public exigencies may at any time dictate." 



.MiKI\"[J:VS ArCKPTAXCE 437 

Animated by like sentiment^, the peo[)le of the 
country must now face the conditions whicli beset 
them. " The pubHc exigencies " demand prompt pro- 
tective legislation, which will avoid the accumulation 
of further debt by providing adequate revenues for 
the expenses of the Government. 

This is manifestly the requirement of duty. If 
elected President of the United States, it will be my 
aim to vigorously promote this object and give that 
ample encouragement to the occupations of the Amer- 
ican people, which, above all else, is so imperatively 
demanded at this juncture of our national affairs. 

In December, 1892, President Harrison sent his 
last message to Congress. It was an able and ex- 
haustive review of the condition and resources of the 
country. It stated our situation so accurately that I 
am sure it will not be amiss to recite his official and 
valuable testimony. 

'• There never has been a time in our history," said 
he, "when work was so abundant, or when wages 
were so high, whether measured by the currency in 
which they are paid or by their power to supply the 
necessaries and comforts of life. The general average 
of prices has been such as to give to agriculture a fair 
participation in the general prosperit3^ The new 
industrial plants established since October 6, 1890, 
and up to October 22, 1892, number 345, and the ex- 
tension of existing plants, 108. The jiew capital in- 
vested amounts to $40,446,060, and the number of 
additional employees, 37,285. 



438 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 

'• During the first six months of the present calendar 
year 135 new fiictories were built, of which 40 were 
cotton mills, 48 knitting mills, 26 woolen mills, 15 
silk mills, 4 plush mills and 2 linen mills. Of the 
forty cotton mills 21 have been built in the Southern 
States." 

This fairly describes the happy condition of the 
country in December, 1893. What has it been since, 
and what is it now ? 

Tlie messages of President Cleveland from the be- 
ginning of his second administration to the present 
time abound with descriptions of the deplorable indus- 
trial and financial situation of the country. While 
no resort to history or official statement is required 
to advise us of the present condition and that which 
has prevailed during the past three years, I venture 
to quote from President Cleveland's first message, 
August 3, 1893, addressed to the Fifty-third Congress, 
which he had called together in extraordinary session. 

" The existence of an alarming and extraordinary 
business situation," said he, "involving the welfare 
and prosperity of all our people has constrained me 
to call together in extra session the people's repre- 
sentatives in Congress, to the end that through the 
wise and patriotic exercise of the legislstive duties 
with which they solely are charged, the present evils 
may by mitigated and dangers threatening the future 
averted. 

" Our unfortunate financial plight is not the result 
of untoward events, nor of conditions related to our 



M.KIXI.KVS AC("i:i"rAXCE 439 

natural resources. Nor is it traceable to any of the 
afllictioiis which frequently check national growth 
and prosperity. 

'' With plenteous crops, with abundant promise of 
remunerative production and manufacture, with un- 
usual invitation to safe investment, and with satis- 
factory assurances to business enterprises, suddenly 
financial distrust and fear have sprung up on every 
side. 

" Numerous nionied institutions have suspended 
because abundant assets were not immediately avail- 
able to meet the demands of frightened depositors. 
Surviving corporations and individuals are content to 
keep in hand the money they are usually anxious to 
loan and those engaged in legitimate business are 
surprised to find that the securities they offer for 
loans, though heretofore satisfiictory, are no longer 
accepted. 

" Values, supposed to be fixed, are fast becoming 
conjectural and loss and failure have invaded every 
branch of business." 

What a startling and sudden change within the 
short period of eight months, from December, 1892 to 
August, 1893 ! 

What had occurred ? A change of administration ; 
all branches of the Government had been entrusted 
to the Democratic party, which was committed against 
the protective policy that had prevailed uninterupt- 
edly for more than thirty-two years and brought 
unexampled prosperity to the country and firmly 



440 McKIXLEY'S ACCEPTAN^CE 

pledged to its complete overthrow and the substitu- 
tion of a tariff for revenue only. The change having 
been decreed by the elections in November, its effects 
were at once anticipated and felt. 

We cannot close our eyes to these altered condi- 
tions, nor would it be wise to exclude from contem- 
plation and investigation the causes which produced 
them. 

They are flicts which we cannot as a people dis- 
regard, and we can only hope to improve our present 
condition by a study of their causes. In December, 
1892, we had the same currency and practically the 
same volume of currency that we have now. It ag- 
gregated in 1892, $2,372,599,501 ; in 1893, $2,323^ 
000,000; in 1894, |2,323,442,362, and in December, 
1895, 12,194,000,230. 

The per capita of money has been practically the 
same during this whole period. The quality of the 
money has been identical — all kept equal to gold. 
There is nothing connected with our money, there- 
fore, to account for this sudden and aggravated indus- 
trial change. Whatever is to be depreciated in our 
financial system it must everywhere be admitted that 
our money has been absolutely good and brought 
neither loss nor inconvenience to its holders. A de- 
preciated currency has not existed to further vex the 
troubled business situation. 

It is a mere pretence to attribute the hard times to 
the fact that all our currency is on a gold basis. Good 
money never made times hard. Those who assert 



McKIXLEY'S ACC^KPTAXCE 441 

that our present industrial and financial depression is 
the result of the gold standard have not read Amer- 
ican history aright or been careful students of the 
events of recent years. 

We never had greater prosperity in this country, 
in every field of employment and industry, than in 
the busy years from 1880 to 1892, during all of whic^i 
time this country was on a gold basis and employed 
more gold money in its fiscal and business operations 
than ever before. We had, too, a protective tariff, 
under which ample revenues were collected for the 
Government and an accumulating surplus which was 
constantly applied to the payment of the public debt. 

Let us hold fast to that which we know is good. 
It is not more money we want ; what we want is to 
put the money we already have at w^ork. When 
money is employed men are employed. Both have 
always been steadily and remuneratively engaged 
during all the years of protective tariff legislation. 

When those who have money lack confidence in 
the stability of values and investments they will not 
part w'ith their money. Business is stagnated — th* 
life-blood of trade is checked and congested. We can- 
not restore public confidence by an act which would 
revolutionize all values or an act which entails a de- 
ficiency in the public revenues. 

We cannot inspire confidence by advocating repu- 
diation or practicing dishonesty. We cannot restore 
confidence either to the Treasury or to the people with- 
out a change in our present tariff legislation. 



442 McKIXLEY"S ACCEPTANCE 

The only measure of a general nature that aflfected 
the Treasury and temperaments of our people passed 
by the Fifty-third Congress was the general tariff act, 
which did not receive the approval of the President. 
Whatever virtues may be claimed for that act there 
is confessedly one whicli it does not possess. 

It lacks the essential virtue of its creation — the 
raising of revenue sufficient to supply the needs of the 
Government. It has at no time provided enough 
revenue for such needs, but it has caused a constant 
deficienc}' in the Treasury and a steady depletion in 
the earnings of labor and land. 

It has contributed to swell our national debt more 
than $262,000,000, a sum nearly as great as the debt 
of the Government from Washington to Lincoln, in- 
cluding all our foreign wars from the Revolution to 
the Rebellion. 

Since its passage work at home has been dimin- 
ished ; prices of agricultural products have fallen, 
confidence has been arrested and general business de- 
moralization is seen on every hand. 

The total receipts under the tariff act of 1894 for 
the first twenty-two months of its enforcement, from 
September, 1894, to June, 1896, were $557,615,328, 
and the expenditures, $640,418,363, or a deficiency 
of $82,803,035. 

The decrease in our exports of American products 
and manufactures during the first fifteen months of 
the present tariff, as contrasted with the exports of 



McKlNLKYS ACCEPTANCE 443 

the first fifteen months of the tariff of 1890, was $220,- 
353,320. 

The excess of exports over imports during the first 
fifteen months of the tariff of 1890, was $213,972,- 
968, but only $50,758,023 under the first fifteen 
months of the tariff of 1894, a loss under the latter 
of $157,214,345. 

The net loss in the trade balance of the United 
States has been $196,983,007 during the first fifteen 
months' operation of the tariff of 1894, as compared 
with the first fifteen months of the tariff of 1890. 

The loss has been large, constant and steady, at 
the rate of $13,130,000 per month, of $500,000 for 
every business day of the year. 

We have either been sending too much money out 
of the country or getting too little in, or both. We 
have lost steadily in both directions. Our foreign 
trade has been diminished and our domestic trade has 
suffered incalculable loss. 

Docs not this suggest the cause of our present de- 
pression and indicate its remedy? Confidence in 
home enterprises has almost wholly disappeared. Our 
shops are closed, or running at half time at reduced 
wages and small profit, if not actual loss. 

Our men at home are idle, and while they are idle 
men abroad are occupied in supplying us with goods. 
Our unrivaled home market for the farmer has also 
greatly suffered, because those who constitute it — the 
great army of American wage-earners — are without 
the work and wages they formerly had. If thoy can 



444 



McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 



not earn wages, they cannot buy products. They can- 
not earn if they have no employment and when they 
do not earn the formers' home market is lessened and 
impaired, and the loss is felt by both producer and 
consumer. 

The loss of earning power alone in this country in 
the past three years is sufficient to have produced our 
unfortunate business situation. If our labor was well 
employed and employed at as remunerative wages as 
in 1892, in a few months every farmer in the land 
would feel the glad change in the increased demand 
for his products and in the better prices which he 
would receive. 

It is not an increase in the volume of money which 
is the need of the time, but an increase of the volume 
of business ; not an increase of coin, but an increase 
of confidence ; not more coinage, but a more active 
use of the money coined ; not open mints for the un- 
limited coinage of the silver of the world, but open 
mills for the full and unrestricted labor of American 
workingmen. 

The employment of our mints for the coinage of 
the silver of the world would not bring the neces- 
saries and comforts of life back to our people. This 
will only come with the employment of the masses, 
and such employment is certain to follow the re- 
establishment of a wise protective policy which shall 
encourage manufacturing at home. 

Protection has lost none of its virtue and impor- 
tance. The first duty of the Republican party, if 



McKIXLEY'S ACXM-:PTAXT0E 445 

restored to power in the country, will be the enact- 
ment of ;i tariir law which will raise all the money 
necessary to conduct the Government, economically 
and honestly administered, and so adjusted as to give 
preference to home manufactures and adequate pro- 
tection to home labor and the home market. 

We are not committed to any special schedules or 
rates of duty. They are, and should be, always sub- 
ject to change to meet new conditions, but the prin- 
ciple upon which rates of duty are imposed remains 
the same. Our duties should always be high enough 
to measure the difference between the wages paid 
labor at home and in competing countries, and. to 
adequately protect American investments and Ameri- 
can enterprises. 

Our farmers have been hurt by the changes in our 
tariff legislation as severely as our laborers and manu- 
facturers, badly as they have suffered. 

The Republican platform declares in favor of such 
encouragement to our sugar interests " as will lead 
to the production on American soil of all the sugar 
which the American people use." 

It promises to our wool and woolen interests the 
" most ample protection," a guaranty that ought to 
commend itself to everj^ patriotic citizen. Never 
was a more grievous wrong done tlie farmers of our 
country than that so unjustly inflicted during the 
past three years upon the \vool growers of America. 
Although among our most industrious and useful 
citizens, their interests have been practically de 



446 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 

stroyed and our woolen affairs involved in similar 
disaster. 

At no time within the past thirty-six years, and, 
perhaps, never during any previous period, have so 
many of our woolen factories been suspended as now. 
The Republican party can be relied upon to correct 
these great wrongs if again entrusted with the con- 
trol of Congress. 

Another declaration of the Republican platform 
that has my most cordial support is that which favors 
reciprocity. The splendid results of the reciprocity 
arrangements that were made under authority of the 
taj'iff law of 1890 are striking suggest! ves. 

The brief period they were in force, in most cases 
only three years, was not long enough to thoroughly 
test their great values, but sufficient was shown by 
the trial to conclusively demonstrate the importance 
and the wisdom of their adoption. 

In 1892 the export trade of the United States 
attained the highest point in our history. The aggre- 
gate of our exports that year reached the immense 
sum of 11,030,278,148, a sum greater by $100,000,- 
000 than the exports of any previous year. 

In 1893, owing to the threat of unfriendly tariff 
legislation, the total dropped to $847,665,194. Our 
exports of domestic merchandise decreased $189,000,- 
000, but reciprocity still secured us a large trade in 
Central and South America, and a larger trade with 
the West Indies than we had ever before enjoyed. 

The increase of trade with the countries with 



McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 447 

which we had reciprocity agreements was $3,560,515 
over our trade in 1892, and $16,440,721 over our 
trade in 1891. The only countries with which the 
United States traded that showed increased exports 
in 1893 were practically those with which we had 
reciprocity arrangements. 

The reciprocity treaty between this country and 
Spain, touching the markets of Cuba and Porto Rico, 
was announced September 1, 1891. The growth of 
our trade with Cuba was phenomenal. In 1891 we 
sold that country but 114,441 barrels of tlour ; in 
1892. 366,175; "in 1893, 616,406; and in 1894, 
622,248. 

Here was a growth of nearly 500 per cent, while 
our exportations of flour to Cuba for the year ending 
June 30, 1895 — the year following the repeal of the 
reciprocity treaty — fell to 379,896 barrels, a loss of 
nearly half our trade with that country. 

The value of our total exports of merchandise from 
the United States to Cuba in 1891 — the year prior to 
the negotiation of the reciprocity treaty — was $12,- 
224,888; in 1892, $17,953,579; in 1893, $24,157,- 
698; in 1894, $20,125,321, but in 1895, after the 
annulment of the reciprocity agreement, it fell to only 
$12,887,661. 

Many similar examples might be given of our in- 
creased trade under reciprocity with other countries, 
but enough has been shown of the efficacy of the 
legislation of 1890 to justify the speedy restoration 
of its reciprocity provisions. 



448 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 

In my judgment, Congress should immediately re- 
store the reciprocity section of the old law with such 
amendments, if any, as time and experience sanction 
as wise and proper. 

The underlying principle of this legislation must, 
however, be strictly observed. It is to afford new 
markets for our surplus agricultural and manufac- 
tured products without loss to the American laborer 
of a single day's work that he might otherwise procure. 

The declaration of the platform touching foreign 
immigration is one of peculiar importance at this time, 
when our own laboring people are in such distress. 
I am in hearty sympathy with the present legislation 
restricting foreign immigration and favor such exten- 
sion of the laws as will secure the United States from 
invasion by the debased and criminal classes of the 
Old World. 

While we adhere to the public policy under which 
our country has received great bodies of honest, in- 
dustrious citizens, who have added to the wealth, pro- 
gress and power of the country, and while we wel- 
come to our shores the well-disposed and industrious 
immigrant who contributes by his energy and intelli- 
gence to the cause of free government, we want no 
immigrants who do not seek our shores to become 
citizens. 

We should permit none to participate in the ad- 
vantages of our civilization who does not sympathize 
with our aims and form of government. We should 
receive none who comes to make war upon our institu- 



McKIXLEY'S ACCKPTAXCE 449 

tions and profit by public disquiet and turmoil. 
Against all such our gates must be tightly closed. 

The soldiers and sailors of the Union should neither 
be neglected nor forgotten. The Government which 
they served so well must not make their lives or con- 
dition harder by treating them as suppliants for relief 
in old age or distress, nor regard with disdain or con- 
tempt the earnest interest one comrade naturally 
manifests in the welfare of another. 

Doubtless there have been pension abuses and 
frauds in the numerous claims allowed by the Govern- 
ment, but the policy governing the administration of 
the Pension Bureau must always be fair and liberal. 
No deserving applicant should ever suffer because of 
a wrong perpetrated by or for another. 

Our soldiers and sailors gave the Government the 
best they had. They freely ofifered health, strength, 
limb and life to save the country in the time of its 
greatest peril, and the Government must honor them 
in their need as in their service with the respect and 
gratitude due to brave, noble and self-sacrificing men 
who are justly entitled to generous aid in their in- 
creasing necessities. 

The declaration of the Republican platform in favor 
of the upbuilding of our merchant marine has my 
hearty approval. The policy of discriminating duties 
in favor of our shipping, which prevailed in the early 
years of our history, should be again adopted by Con- 
gress and vigorously supported until our prestige and 
supremacy on the seas is fully attained. 



450 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 

We should no longer contribute directly or indi- 
rectly to the maintenance of the colossal marine of 
foreign countries, but provide an efficient and com- 
plete marine of our own. 

Now that the American navy is assuming a position 
conmiensurate with our importance as a nation, a 
policy I am glad to observe the Republican platform 
strongly indorses, we must supplement it with a mer- 
chant marine that will give us the advantages, in both 
our coastwise and foreign trade that we ought natu- 
rally and properly to enjoy. 

It should be at once a matter of public policy and 
national pride to repossess this immense and prosper- 
ous trade. 

The pledge of the Republican National Convention 
that our civil service laws " shall be sustained and 
thoroughly and honestly enforced and extended wher- 
ever practicable " is in keeping with the position of 
the party for the past twenty-four years, and will be 
faithfully observed. 

Our opponents decry these reforms. They appear 
willing to abandon all the advantages gained after so 
many years of agitation and effort. They encourage 
a return to methods of party favoritism which both 
parties have often denounced, that experience has 
condemned and that the people have repeatedly dis- 
approved. 

The Republican party earnestly opposes this reac- 
tionary and entirely unjustifiable policy. It will take 



.Melv 1 .\ LE Y ';S AL'CKi'TANCE 451 

no backward step upon this question. It will seek to 
improve but never degrade tlie public service. 

There are other important and timely declara- 
tions in the platform which 1 cannot here discuss. I 
must content myself with saying tliat they have my 
approval. 

If, as Republicans, we have lately addressed our 
attention with what may seem great stress and earn- 
estness to the new and unexpected assault upon the 
financial integrity of the Go\'ernment, we have done 
it because the menace is so grave as to demand espe- 
cial consideration, and because we are convinced that 
if the people are aroused to the true understanding 
and meaning of this silver inflation movement they 
will avert the danger. 

In doing this we feel that we render the best service 
possible to the country, and we appeal to the intelli- 
gence, conscience and patriotism of the people, irre- 
spective of party or section, for their earnest support. 

We avoid no issues. We meet the sudden, danger- 
ous and revolutionary assault upon law and order and 
upon those to whom is confided by the Constitution 
and laws the authority to uphold and maintain them 
which our opponents have made with the same cour- 
age that we have faced every emergency since our 
organization as a party, more than forty years ago. 

Government by law must first be assured; every- 
thing else can wait. The spirit of lawlessness must 
be extinguished by the tires of an unselfish and lofty 
patriotism. 



452 McKINLEVS ACCEPTANCE 

Every attack upon the public faith and every sug- 
gestion of the repudiation of debts, public or private, 
must be rebuked by all men who believe that honesty 
is the best policy, or who love their country and 
would preserve unsullied its national honor. 

The country is to be congratulated upon the almost 
total obliteration of the sectional lines which for many 
years marked the division of the United States into 
slave and free territory and finally threatened its 
partition into two separate governments by the dread 
ordeal of civil war. 

The era of reconciliation, so long and earnestly de- 
sired by General Grant and many other great leaders, 
North and South, has happily come, and the feeling 
of distrust and hostility between the sections is every- 
where vanishing, let us hope never to return. 

Nothing is better calculated to give strength to the 
nation at home than to increase our influence abroad 
and add to the permanency and security of our free 
institutions than the restoration of cordial relations 
between the people of all sections and parts of our 
beloved country. 

If called by the suffrages of the people to assume 
the duties of the high office of President of the United 
States, I shall count it a privilege to aid, even in the 
slightest degree, in the promotion of the spirit of frat- 
ernal regard which should animate and govern the 
citizens of every section. State or part of the Republic. 

After the lapse of a century since its utterance, let 
us, at length and forever hereafter, heed the admoni- 



McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 453 

tion of Washington, "There should be no North, no 
South, no East, no West, but a common country." 

It shall be my constant aim to improve every op- 
portunity to advance the cause of good government 
by promoting that spirit of forbearance and justice 
which is so essential to our prosperity and happiness 
by joining most heartily in all proper efforts to restore 
the relations of brotherly respect and affection which 
in our early history characterized all the people of all 
the States. 

I would be glad to contribute toward binding in 
indivisible union the different divisions of the country, 
which, indeed, now " have every inducement of sym- 
pathy and interest" to weld them together more 
strongly than ever. 

I would rejoice to see demonstrated to the world 
that the North and the South and the East and the 
West are not separated or in danger of becoming 
separated because of sectional or party differences. 

The war is long since over; "we are not eneinies, 
but friends," and as friends we will faitlifully and 
cordially co-operate, under the approving smile of 
Him who has thus far so signally sustained and 
guided us, to preserve inviolate our country's name 
and honor, of its peace and good order, of its con- 
tinued ascendancy amongst the greatest governments 
on earth. 

WILLIAM M'KINLEY. 



CHAPTER XX. 

SALIENT EXTRACTS FROM MAJOR McKINLEY's ADDRESSES 
TO REPRESENTATIVE DELEGATIONS. 

EVEN before the date of the publication of his 
brilliant letter of acceptance, and thence on 
to the day of his triumphant election, Major 
McKinley was called upon daily — almost hourly — to 
address various visiting delegations upon the supreme 
issue of the campaign. His speeches were always to 
the point, pungent in phrase, and pregnant with fact. 
As in his letter of acceptance, so in his speeches, he 
multiplied the resources of the campaign for sound 
money, and gave convincing arguments for an honest 
standard of value. 

Three days prior to his acceptance of the nomina- 
tion, he addressed a body of 500 farmers, and made an 
earnest appeal for an honest currency. In the 
course of his address he said : 

"Can the farmer be helped by free coinage of 
silver ? 

" He cannot be helped because if the nominal price 
of grain were to rise, through an inflation of the 
currency, the price of everything else would rise 

454 



McKlX LEY'S ADDK'KSSKS 455 

also, and the farmer would be relatively no better 
ofi' than he was before. 

" He would not get any more real value for his 
grain than he gets now, and would sufl'er from the 
general demoralization which would follow the free 
coinage of silver. You cannot help the farmer by 
more coinage of silver. lie can only be helped by 
more consumers for his products. You cannot help 
him by free trade, but, as I have shown, he can be 
hurt, and seriously hurt, by the free introduction of 
competing products into this country. 

" Better a thousand times enlarge the markets for 
American products than to enlarge the mints for the 
silver products of the world. You might just as 
well understand now that you cannot add value to 
anything by diminishing the measure of the value 
with which the thing is sold or exchanged. 

"If you can increase the value by lowering the 
measure of value, and you want to benefit the 
farmer, then make the bushel smaller, the pound 
lighter and declare a legal dozen less than twelve. 

" The home market is the best friend of the farmer. 
It is his best market. It is his only reliable market. 
It is his own natural market. 

" Prosperity of manufiicturers is inseparable from 
the prosperity of agriculture. Set all our wheels in 
motion, set all our spindles whirling, set all our men 
at work on full time, start up the idle workshops of 
the country, bring back confidence and business, and 
the farmer will at once feel the influence in the 



456 McKINLEY'S ADDEESSES 

greater demand for his products and in the better 
prices he would receive. When the farmer has 
found a market for his goods, he wants his pay for 
what he sells in such unquestioned coin that he will 
know it is good not only to-day, but will be certain 
to be good every day of the year and in all countries 
of the world. 

" Free silver will not cure over-production or under- 
consumption. Free silver will not remove the com- 
petition of Russia, India and the Argentine Republic. 
This competition would remain if you would coin all 
the silver of the world. Free silver will not increase 
the demand for your wheat or make a single new con- 
sumer. 

" You don't get consumers through the mints. You 
get them through the factories. You will not get 
them by increasing the circulation of money in the 
United States. You will only get them by increasing 
the manufacturing establishments in the United 
States." 

Again, he said to the Chicago Commercial M'Kinley 
Club on x\ugnst 29 th : " If there is one kind of money 
that is good in every civilized world and another that 
passes in only some parts of the world, the people of 
the United States will never be content with anything 
short of the best. 

" We have been doing business on that basis since 
January 1, 1879. We will continue that policy so 
long as we have a just regard for our honest obliga- 
^iions and high standing as a nation. 



McKlXLKVS ADDKESSES 457 

" Free silver at a ratio of 16 to 1, or about half its 
true bullion valuo, is not a full dollar. Good money 
never made times hard. And poor money never 
made times good. 

" My fellow-citizens, our contest this year is for the 
country's honor and prosperity. The need of the 
hour is work for willing hands, work and wages for 
the unemployed and a chance to earn the good dollars 
which are now idle and are only waiting in their hid- 
ing places for a restoration of confidence. 

" Our contest is for the good faith of the nation and 
the welfare of the people, and we can proc^'^^n with 
confidence the same supreme faith in the people which 
upheld Lincoln in every trial of the war. As he said, 
* Intelligence and patriotism and a firm reliance in 
Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are 
still competent to adjust in the best way all our pre- 
sent difficulties.' In tliis faith we submit our conten- 
tion to the great tribunal of the people." 

ANTE-ELECTION SPEECHES. 

It is not easy to comprise within the compass of 
this volume even brief extracts from a few of the 
leading ante-election addresses delivered by Major 
M'Kinley, but we cull the following : 

To the Colored Ritlemen of Cleveland : " I con- 
gratulate you, gentlemen, upon the splendid progress 
that your race has made since emancipation. You 
have done better, you have advanced more rapidly 
than it was believed possible at that time: you havQ 



458 MeKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 

improved greatly the educational advantages wliich 
you have had. Your people everywhere, No»-th and 
South, are accumulating property and to-day you 
stand as among the most conservative of the citizens 
of this great Republic. 

" We are now engaged in a political contest and 
your presence in such vast numbers here to-day 
evidence the interest which you have in the public 
questions that are now engaging the attention of the 
American people. We have a great country and we 
must keep it great. 

" The post which the United States must occupy 
both in wages and industries, and in the integrity of 
its finances and currency, must be at the head of the 
nations of the earth. To that place of honor the 
people of the country must restore it this year. They 
have the opportunity that they have wished for since 
1892. Will they meet it this year? 

" We want in the United States neither cheap 
money nor cheap labor. We will have neither the 
one nor the other. We must not forget that nothing 
is cheap to the American people which comes from 
abroad when it entails idleness upon our own laborers." 

To 3,000 Pennsylvania workingmen (on Labor 
Day) : " When a man is out of a job he is usually out 
of money, and to live he must draw upon his savings 
if he has any. If not upon his savings then upon his 
credit. What the idle morkingman wants is a job 
that means money to him. The mints, if they were 
thrown wide open to the coinage of every character 



McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 459 

of metal and were multiplied 100 fold in capacity, 
would neither furnish the workingman a job nor 
supply his exhausted savings or give him credit. 
Nothing will accompish that but work. Work at fair 
wages, and that will only come through confidence 
restored by a wise financial and industrial policy. 

" And there is another thing we ought to remem- 
ber, that free silver at a ratio of 16 to 1, or any other 
ratio, will not repeal the great law of supply and de- 
mand. It is a great error to suppose that you can 
enhance values by diminishing the value of money — 
that you can increase the value of anything by chang- 
ing its measure. You can no more do that than you 
can increase quantity by lowering the bushel measure. 
Garfield uttered a great truth when speaking for the 
redemption of specie payments he said : ' In the 
name of every man who wants his own when he has 
earned it, I demand that he do not make the wages 
of the poor man to shrivel in his hands after he has 
earned them. But that his money shall be made bet- 
ter and easier until the plowholder's money shall be 
as good as the bondholder's money. Until our stand- 
ard is one, and there is no longer one money for the 
rich and another for the poor.' 

" I thank you, my countrymen, for this generous 
and gracious call here to-day. One of the great 
sources of comfort to me in this great campaign is the 
feeling that I have behind me the workingmen of the 
United States. It will give me pleasure now to meet 
and greet each and every one of you." 



460 McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 

To a delegation from Vermont : " A people who 
could tax themselves most heavily to equip and main- 
tain the armies and navies of the Union, and continue 
the most extensive and expensive war in history, will 
not turn their backs upon the soldiers of that war, 
nor seek to pay their pensions in dollars worth only 
half their face value. 

" A people who emerged from that war with an in- 
terest-bearing debt of $2,382,000,000, or $70 per capita 
for our entire population in 1865, will not now, after 
having honestly paid three-fourths of that great debt, 
ever seek directly or indirectly to repudiate one dollar 
of it or cheapen the coin of payment. 

" A people, I say, who proceeded in good faith to 
pay off that debt with such unparalleled rapidity 
that, it was estimated in 1888, up to that time they 
had paid $123 for every minute of every day of every 
year from 1865 to 1888, will not now falter, bargain 
or scheme to defraud any creditor of the Government, 
whoever or wherever he may be." 

To G. A. R. veterans of Ohio : " You were good 
citizens before you went to the war ; you were good 
soldiers in the war ; you have been good citizens ever 
since, standing by the same old flag, no matter where 
you are. 

Let me point to you a picture ! 

See a million soldiers there, 
Flushed with triumph, and with weapons 

Flashing keen and bright and bare. 

Vanished ! Wondrous transformation ! 
Where is now that mighty band ? 



McKlNLEY'S ADDRESSES 4G1 

Do they roam, a vast banditti, 
Pillaging their native land ? 

No, we point to field and workshop ; 
Let the world the moral see. 

There, beneath the dust of labor, 
Toil the veteran soldiery. 

Ye, who, mightiest in the battle. 
On the mountain and the plain 

Wrought, jes, wrought your greatest triumph 
When ye sought your homes again. 

Sought j'our home, 'mid peace and quiet, 
Grasping with your strong right hand 

Implements of" honest labor, 
ToiUng to rebuild the land. 

" You were patriots then ; you are patriots to-day. 
You know no politics in your Grand Army posts, but 
you do know patriotism when you see it." 

To the steel workers of Braddock, Pa. : " From the 
hour it was determined by the American people that 
the Republican party which with but a single inter- 
ruption had been in control of the Government for 
thirty years, was to go out of power and another 
party with a different policy was to come in, that 
moment every business man of the country assumed 
an attitude of anxious waiting and of fear and anxiety. 

" While business men were waiting to know what 
legislation was to be, business was languishing from 
one end of the country to the other, and labor was 
without work. Then we commenced living from hand 
to mouth, and we have been living from hand to 
mouth ever since. And, as an old comrade said to 
me the other day, the distance seemed to be getting 
greater with every succeeding year. 



462 McKINLEY'S ADDEESSES 

" According to a census recently taken by a news- 
paper in New York, it appears that in July, 1892, 
577 employers of labor in the United States that year 
gave work to 114,231 hands. How was it in July, 
1896 ? The same emplojers gave work to 78,700 
hands; 35,531 men who liad been employed in 1892 
were thrown out of employment in 1896 and put in 
a state of idleness, resulting in a loss of more than 30 
per cent, to labor. 

"In July, 1892, the wages paid to the 114,231 
hands amounted to $3,927,000; in July, 1896, the 
earnings of the 78,700 hands amounted to only $2,- 
469,712, a loss to labor in a single month in these 
establishments of $1,457,000, a decrease or loss to 
labor of 40 per cent." 

To delegates from Indiana : •' I believe in America 
for Americans, native born and naturalized. I be- 
lieve in the American pay roll. And I don't believe 
in diminishing that pay roll by giving work to any- 
body else under another flag while we've got an idle 
man under our flag. 

" Four years ago the laborer was agitating the ques- 
tion of shorter hours. We then had too much to do. 
I have heard no discussion of that kind for four years. 
And I never heard a laboring man discussing the de- 
sirability of having shorter dollars. 

'' The cause of complaint of our opponents is, first, 
that we have not enough money, and, second, that 
our money is too good. 

" To the first complaint, I answer that the per 



McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 463 

capita of circulating medium of this country has been 
greater since the so-called 'crime of 1873' than it 
ever was before, and that it has been greater in the 
past five years than it ever was in all our history. 

" We have not only got the best money in the 
world, but we've got more of it than most of the 
nations of the world. We've got more money than 
the United Kingdom per capita. We've got more 
money than Germany per capita. We've got more 
money than Italy per capita. We've got more money 
than Switzerland, Greece, Spain, Roumania, Servia, 
Austria, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Rus- 
sia, Turkey, Mexico, and the Central and Southern 
American States, and more than Japan or China per 
capita. 

" So that some other reason than the lack of volume 
of money must be found to account for the present 
condition of the country." 

To Buffalo, N. Y., real estate men : '• The courts 
which interpret and execute the law- must be pre- 
served on that exalted plane of purity and incorrupt- 
ibility which have so signally characterized the 
American judiciary. These courts must be upheld 
for the safety and defense of the citizen. When the 
law and those whose constitutional duty it is to exe- 
cute them are assailed the Government itself is as- 
sailed. 

" If there are those who would break down law 
and disturb the peace and good order of society, then 
those who value these safeguards as essential to our 



464 McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 

liberty must sacredly guard and defend them by their 
ballots. This they will do with the same earnest pa- 
triotism that they have always displayed in every 
great emergency in the life of the nation. 

" To strike at the credit of the country is to deal a 
blow at its prosperity. It destroys confidence, and, 
v/hen that is gone business stops and the currents of 
trade are dried up. Confidence, in a measure, and in 
a very great measure, is the capital of the world. 
Destroy confidence and you invite ruin to every en- 
terprise in the land. 

"Absolute integrity of payment in all transactions, 
public and private, lies at the foundation of confi- 
dence, and, when confidence is once firmly estab- 
lished, there is scarcely any limit to capital. This is 
the universal experience of both government and in- 
dividual. 

"A tainted credit is a constant embarrassment to 
government and citizens, and, when it once fastens 
itself upon either, it is hard for them to recover. A 
limping credit attracts no capital and inspires no con- 
fidence." 

To tin-plate men : "I submit to all of you, no 
matter what may have been your politics in the past, 
whether you would not prefer to have that tin-plate 
factory in your county, and in your State than to 
have it in Wales. The more factories you can have 
in any community the better will be the general in- 
dustrial conditions and the better will be the market 
for the farmer who produces food products. But it 



McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 465 

is not my purpose to address you on political ques- 
tions." 

To Indiana railroad men : " Why, talk about the 
creditors of this country ! Our opponents animad- 
vert against them. Who are the creditors of this 
country ? They are the men who labor in this 
country. 

" The greatest creditors of this country are its 
workingmen. Aside from what is due them on in- 
vestments and savings, their current wages make 
them the largest credit class in the United States. 

"The employers of this country owe their em- 
ployees every thirty days in good times more than 
the whole debt of the bonds of the United States, 
while nearly five hundred millions of dollars are paid 
out annually to the railroad employees alone." 

To a delegation from Centre county. Pa. : " I have 
often wondered if Pennsylvania's powerful influence 
for stability, conservatism and prosperity in the 
Union and its great strength and self-supporting ca- 
pacity as a Commonwealth in that Union were prop- 
erly appreciated. Her agriculture, commerce and 
manufacturing, while independent in one sense, have 
always been mutually inter-dependent, beneficial and 
helpful. The whole community has profited by each 
and all of them. 

" This has been the case ever since its settlement 
in pioneer days, and under its wise system of politi- 
cal economy, not created or fostered by the creed of 
visionaries, but that of plain, sensible, practical men. 



4G6 McKT^^LEY'S ADDRESSES 

*' No other similar reward of husbandry is pre- 
sented anywhere, and I make no apology, my fellow- 
citizens, for your getting a like policy everywhere or 
for having always endeavored to the extent of my 
efforts to continue this wise system under which you 
have such splendid results in the State of Pennsyl- 
vania. 

■'Call it the Pennsylvania system, if you will; it 
only does honor to Pennsylvania and her statesman- 
ship, for it benefits all our laborers and farmers in all 
parts of the American Union. Why should we not 
do all our work and spend all our own wages at home, 
giving to both farmers and workingmen the richest 
rewards for their labor of any country under the sun ? 
Answer that, my fellow-citizens." 

To miners from Clarion county, Pa. : " There is 
one thing which I think we are sometimes too apt to 
forget. We are too apt to forget what is behind us, 
and too apt to be heedless of our own experience. 
We can hardly realize that from 1873 to 1893 we re- 
duced the public debt from $2,333,331,308 in 1866 
to $570,000,000. We paid off during those twenty 
years $1,623,581,673 of the public debt. And we 
were under a protective and sound money system 
when we were making the large payments. Two- 
thirds of that great debt has disappeared, and while 
we were paying it off we were building in this coun- 
try the most splendid industrial enterprises, giving 
steady employment to American labor at fair wages, 
and giving to the farmers of the country a just reward 



McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 467 

for their toil and labor. During the period, for the 
greater part of the time, we were selling more gold 
abroad than we were buying abroad. And the bal- 
ance of trade was, therefore, in our favor, and the 
balance of trade, settled as it was in gold, gave us the 
good yellow money from the other side of the ocean. 
No, my fellow-citizens, four years ago the people of 
this country determined to change that policy, and 
they did change it." 

To the iMcKinley Club, of Goodland, Ind. : " The 
idea that the Government can create wealth is a mere 
myth. There is nothing that can create wealth ex- 
cept labor. 

" Now the best way to get this money is one of the 
questions in this campaign. Is it easier to raise it 
by direct taxation, by taxing the people in their oc- 
cupations, on their property and on their lands, or is 
it not better to raise it by putting the tax upon the 
foreign products that come into this country to seek 
a market in the United States? 

" The latter is the policy and purpose of the Re- 
publican party. The Republican party believes that 
the great bulk of the money required to pay the ex- 
penses of the Government should be raised by put- 
ting a tax upon the foreign products that come into 
this country to compete with American products. If 
we could create money by merely starting our mints 
running, then there would be no necessity of taxes." 

To the United Italian Republican Club, of Pitts- 
burg : " We are a nation of working people j we rec- 



468 McKIXLEY'S ADDEESSES 

ognize no caste and will tolerate none beneath our 
flag. (A voice : ' We know it,' and great applause.) 
The voice of one citizen is as potent as the voice of 
another, and the united voice when constitutionally 
expressed is the law of the land. The great Englisli 
statistician, Mr. Mulhall, declares that no other civ- 
ilized country but the United States could boast of 
41,000,000 instructed citizens in a total population 
of less than 70,000,000, all of whom are equal bene- 
ficiaries of the advantages and blessings and opportu- 
nities of free government. 

" The issues of this campaign cannot be overstated 
in their nnportance. What are they ? First, shall 
we sustain law and order and uphold the tribunals of 
justice, which in all the trying times of the past 
have been our greatest safety and our pride ? Shall 
we do this, men of Italian birth and descent ? Shall 
we continue a financial policy which is safe and sound, 
and gives to us a money with which to do a business 
that is stable in value and which commands respect, 
not only at home, but in every commercial nation of 
the world ? 

'' Shall we restore the industrial policy by which 
this nation has become mightier than all the other 
great commercial, manufacturing, mining and farm- 
ing nations of the world ? 

"On these questions there should be no two opin- 
ions ; and I believe this year the people of this coun- 
try of every nationality, of every race and clan, loyal 
as they are to this Government jf their adoption, 



McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 469 

will unitedly sustain the authority of law and the 
Constitution. Continue an honest financial system 
which will share work and wages and employment 
and comforts for labor, good mai'kets fur the farmers, 
in which all the people will participate." 

To miners and oil men of McDonald, Pa. : " We 
can truthfully claim as Americans that our na- 
tional administrations in all the years of the past, 
whether Federal or Democratic or Whig or Republi- 
can, have for the most part conducted the Govern- 
ment with credit, honor and efficiency. To our 
credit, be it said, that not one of these administra- 
tions, whatever may have been their mistakes and 
failures, ever suggested, much less attempted, the 
repudiation, directly or indirectly, of a single dollar, 
or cent, honestly due to a citizen of this or any other 
country of the globe, nor counseled the establishment 
of a money for the uses of the people tainted with 
the slightest dishonor. 

" Shall we now consent or seem to consent by 
our votes to lower that high standard or reverse 
the proud policy which this Government has pur- 
sued from its beginning ? Shall we tolerate now a 
policy that would cheat any of our creditors, whoever 
or wherever they may be ? 

" Shall we tolerate a policy that would deprive 
the brave men living, or their widows or orphans, 
of a farthing in the pensions that a grateful Gov- 
ernment has granted them ? How could we recall 
their patriotic services, or the heroic services of 



470 McKIXLEY'S ADDEESSES 

Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and 
Grant, if we were to stoop to shave one dollar 
either from the money credit of the Government, or 
those of her creditors of the Government who were 
willino" to give their lives to save the Union?" 

To a Tennessee delegation : " Tennessee can justly 
boast that she has been the birthplace and home 
of many of the eminent men of our country. She 
has given to the Presidency three of her distin- 
guished citizens — Jackson, Polk and Johnson. She 
gave to the Lone Star Republic of Texas that sturdy 
old patriot, Sam Houston, one of its early Presi- 
dents. She has given to the nation such splendid 
patriots, statesmen and upright public servants, 
among whom are Hugh L. White, John Bell, Felix 
Grundy, David Crockett, Admiral Farragut, David 
Givin, of California, and that distinguished journalist 
of Kentucky, Henry Watterson. 

" The record this year of Tennessee should be 
in keeping with the principles emblazoned on her 
State seal. Agriculture, Manufacture and Commerce. 
With prosperity in these fields of human activity, 
she can always advance ; without it, she must in- 
evitably recede and decline. 

"Men of Tennessee, do you stand by the prin- 
ciples enunciated by the immortal Jackson? Do 
you favor a protective tariff and honest money ? I 
am glad to be assured by your voices that you do, 
and that you have not forgotten the force and merit 
of his great example. Do you believe in his decla- 



McKINLEY'S ADDKESSES 471 

ration for the enforcement and the majesty of public 
law? Are you willing to 'compromise' the great 
principles he so steadfastly upholds in defense of 
the Constitution, the courts and the citizen ? " 

To the thousands of visitors on '' Illinois Day " 
(Oct. 21st) : " You have the immortal Lincoln. 
That's enough for one State. You have the mighty 
Grant, who filled the world with his fame as he joru- 
neyed in the pathway of the sun. Then you had 
Logan. Then you have Oglesby — grand old Dick 
Oglesby, and you have Tanner. 

'' Your farm products have reached $270,000,000 
in a single year, and some people seem to think you 
would produce more if you had free silver; or more 
than |5 an acre for every acre of land. Now that 
the price of wheat is going up and silver is going 
down, and your crops have been exceptionally good, 
I cannot see how even the most pessimistic can con- 
vince you, or themselves, that our present gold stand- 
ard, which we have had since 1879, can be of the 
least possible detriment to you. 

" It was announced from this platform that you 
had made the largest registration of any State in the 
American Union ; and that ought to mean the largest 
majority of any State in the American Union for 
sound money and protection. What will be your 
answer to the open challenges to be made for public 
honesty and public morals? 

'' You can never permanently advance or prosper 
under any systejn of false finance or false political 



472 McKi:n^ley'S addresses 

economy that was ever devised by the will of man. 
You can only prosper upon honest principles, honest 
purposes, honest laws, public and private honor. 

'•Agriculture will be prostrated, commerce will 
languish, mining will decrease and manufactures di- 
minish, if, to the misery of partial free trade, you add 
the heresy of free silver, which in this contest means 
the violation of the existing contracts and the utter 
disregard of good faith and the absolute repudiation 
in whole or in part of our public or private obliga- 
tions. Disguise the issues as you may, the bold, 
cold, hard facts remain, and no amount of chicanery 
or sophistry will hide them." 

To his neighbors and fellow-citizens of Canton : 
'' The American people will never take so rash and 
wicked a step as to invalidate or impair the value of 
their own government obligations. They will never 
consent by popular vote or otherwise to the repudia- 
tion of one farthing of their national debt. They 
will never brook the thought of not looking the 
whole world in the face and challenging any nation 
to point to a more honorable or creditable record 
than ours." 

To some 150 or more college students coming from 
over thirty institutions in couples and trios : " ' Study 
the Constitution of the United States thoroughly; 
contrast its teachings with the doctrines of the poli- 
tical parties of the day, and vote with the one you 
then believe will do the most for your country.' " 

" The Republican party can well afford to submit 



to that test ; it never has shrunk from the severest 
tests of the past and has never suffered thereby. But 
in the alignment of parties to-day and in the vital 
questions at issue between them, it especially and 
cheerfully invites comparison and contrast. It has 
no aim but the public good and the honor of the 
American name, and confidently submits its conten- 
tion, not to a class or a section, but to the whole 
American people. 

" Daniel Webster always stood for America, and I 
can recall no grander words in any oration than the 
ringing, truthful and touching sentences in which, 
after paying his own State grand and well-deserved 
tribute, he in terms of endearment claimed Washing- 
ton, Henr}^, Marshall, Jefferson, Madison and other 
distinguished Southerners as just as much his country- 
men as any of the noble patriots of New England. 

" He expressed in that wonderful speech the true 
sentiment of this campaign, the dominant, moving 
force of the present national contest. This is the 
spirit that should animate every young man in the 
country, in college and out, everywhere to-day — a 
national spirit — a broad and comprehensive patri- 
otism, a genuine Americanism. 

'' If I could give the young men of the United States 
a message that I would have them hear and heed, it 
would be ' Stand up for America; devote your life to 
its cause ; love your own homes and prove as worthy 
of our cherished free institutions as they are worthy 
of your allegiance and services.' 



474 McKmLF.Y'S ADDRESSES 

" Let not the high standard of national honor raised 
by the fathers be lowered by their sons. Let learn- 
ing, liberty and law be exalted and enthroned. 

" You come from the great educational institutions 
of the land, and I dare say love to contemplate with 
me their great and increasing importance. Each is 
for his own, but proud of all, and there are none but 
would give honor to the great public school system 
of the country. 

" In addition to the great outlay by the nation upon 
common schools, America has just reason to be proud 
of the private benefactions which our philanthropic 
citizens are constantly making to our colleges and 
universities. They have fallen off, it is true, in the 
last three years, and they will be still more reduced 
if we are ever so unwise as to enter upon the project 
of free silver as now proposed, or any other sctieme 
of false finance." 



CHAPTER XXL 

Mckinley's inaugural address. 

A lofty appeal to all patriotic Americans for tlie prompt solution of 
the great ami pressing problems of tlie National Government. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS: In obedience to the will 
of the people and in their presence by the 
authority vested in ine by them, I must be both 
"sure we are right" and " make haste slowly." 

K, therefore, Congress in its wisdom shall deem it 
expedient to create a commission to take under con- 
sideration the revision of our coinage, banking and 
currency laws, and give them that exhaustive, care- 
ful and dispassionate examination that their impor- 
tance demands, I shall cordially concur in such 
action. 

If such power is vested in the President, it is ray 
purpose to appoint a commission of prominent, well- 
informed citizens of diffen^nt parties, who will com- 
mand public confidence both on account of their 
ability and special fitness for the work. 

Business experience and j>ul)lic traininp; may thus 
be combined, and the patriotic / 'til of the friends of 
the country be so directed that siicli a report will be 
made as to receive the support of all parties, and our 

475 



476 McKINLEY'S I¥AUGITEAL ADDEESS 

finances cease to be the subject of mere partisan 
contention. 

The experiment is, at all events, worth a trial, 
and, in my opinion, it can but prove beneficial to the 
entire country. 

The question of mternationai bimetallism will 
have early and earnest attention. It will be my con- 
stant endeavor to secure it by co-operation with the 
other great commercial Powers of the world. 

Until that condition is realized, when the parity 
between our gold and silver money springs from and 
is supported by the relative value of the two metals, 
the value of the silver already coined, and of that 
which may hereafter be coined, must be kept con- 
stantly at par with gold by every resource at our 
command. 

The credit of the Government, the integrity of its 
currency and the inviolability of its obligations must 
be preserved. This will be the commanding verdict 
of the people, and it will not be unheeded. 

Economy is demanded in every branch of the Gov- 
ernment at all times, but especially in periods like 
the present of depression in business and distress 
among the people. The severest economy must be 
observed in all public expenditures, and extravagance 
stopped wherever it is found, and prevented wherever 
in the future it may be developed. 

If the revenues are to remain as now, the only re- 
lief that can come must be from decreased expendi- 
tureg, 



' McKINLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 477 

But the present must not become the permanent 
condition of the Government. 

It has been our uniform practice to retire, not in- 
crease, our outstanding obhgations, and this policy 
must again be resumed and vigorously enforced. 

Our revenues should always be large enough to 
meet with ease and promptness not only our current 
needs, and tiie principal and interest of the public 
debt, but to make proper and liberal provision for that 
most deserving body of public creditors, the soldiers 
and sailors, and the widows and orphans, who are 
the pensioners of the United States. 

The Government must not be permitted to run be- 
hind, or increase its debt, in times like the present. 
Suitably to provide against this is the mandate of 
duty ; the certain and easy remedy for most of our 
financial difficulties. 

A deficiency is inevitable so long as the expen- 
ditures of the Government exceed its receipts. It 
can only be met by loans, or an increased revenue. 

While a large annual surplus of revenue may invite 
waste and extravagance, inadequate revenue creates 
distrust and undermines public and private credit. 
Neither should be encourao-ed. 

Between more loans and more revenue, there ought 
to be but one opinion. We should have more re- 
venue, and that without delay, hindrance, or post- 
ponement. 

A surplus in the Treasury created by loans is not 
a permanent or safe reliance. It will suffice while it 



478 McKmLEY'S mAUGUEAL ADDRESS 

lasts, but it cannot last long while the outlays of the 
Government are greater than its receipts, as has been, 
the case during the past two years. 

Nor must it be forgotten that, however much such 
loans may temporarily relieve the situation, the 
Government is still indebted for the amount of the 
surplus thus accrued, which it must ultimately pay, 
while its abiUty to pay is not strengthened but weak- 
ened by a continued deficit. 

Loans are imperative in great emergencies to pre- 
serve the Government or its credit, but a failure to 
supply needed revenue in time of peace for the main- 
tenance of either has no justification. 

The best way for the Government to maintain its 
credit is to pay as it goes — not by resorting to loans, 
but by keeping out of debt — through an adequate in- 
come secured by a system of taxation, external or in- 
ternal, or both. 

It is the settled policy of the Government, pursued 
from the beginning and practised by all parties and 
Administrations, to raise the bulk of our revenue from 
taxes upon foreign productions entering the United 
States for sale and consumption, and avoiding, for 
the most part, every form of direct taxation except 
in time of war. 

The country is clearly opposed to any needless ad- 
ditions to the subjects of internal taxation, and is 
committed by its latest popular utterance to the sys- 
tem of tariff taxation. 

There can be no misunderstanding, either, about 



McKIXLEY'S lx\ AUGURAL ADDRESS 479 

the principle upon which this tariff taxation shall be 
levied. Nothing has ever been made plainer at a 
general election than that the controlling principle in 
the raising of revenue from duties on imports is zeal- 
ous care for American interests and American labor. 
The people have declared that such legislation should 
be had as will give ample protection and encourage- 
ment to the industries and the development of our 
country. 

It is, therefore, earnestly hoped and expected that 
Congress will, at the earliest practicable moment, en- 
act revenue legislation that shall be fair, reasonable, 
conservative, and just, and which, while supplying 
sufficient revenue for public purposes, will still be 
signallj^ beneficial and helpful to every section and 
every enterprise of the people. 

To this policy we are all, of whatever party, firmly 
bound by the voice of the people — a power vastly 
more potential than the expression of any political 
platform. 

The paramount duty of Congress is to stop deficien- 
cies by the restoration of that protective legislation 
which has always been the firmest prop of the Trea- 
sury. The passage of such a law or laws would 
strengthen the credit of the Government both at 
home and abroad, and go far towards stopping the 
drain upon the gold reserve held for the redemption 
of our currency, which has been heavy and wellnigh 
constant for several years. 

In th« revision of the tariff, special attention should 



480 McKmLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

be given to the re-enactment and extension of the re- 
ciprocity principle of the hiw of 1890, under which so 
great a stimulus was given to our foreign trade in 
new and advantageous markets, for our surplus agri- 
cultural and manufactured products. 

The brief trial given this legislation amply justifies 
a further experiment and additional discretionary 
power in the making of commercial treaties, the end 
in view always to be the opening up of new markets 
for the products of other lands that we need and can- 
not produce ourselves, and which do not involve any 
loss of labor to our own people, but tend to increase 
their employment. 

The depression of the past four years has fallen 
with especial severity upon the great body of toilers 
of the country, and upon none more than the holders 
of small farms. Agriculture has languished and labor 
suffered. The revival of manufacturing will be a re- 
lief to both. 

No portion of our population is more devoted to the 
institutions of free government, nor more loyal in 
their support, while none bears more cheerfully or 
fully its proper share in the maintenance of the 
Government, or is better entitled to its wise and lib- 
eral care and protection. Legislation, helpful to pro- 
ducers, is beneficial to all. 

The depressed condition of industry on the farm 
and in the mine and factory has lessened the ability 
of the people to meet the demands upon them, and 
they rightfully expect that not only a system of re- 



McKINM;VS INAUUUKAL AUDllESS 481 

I 
venue shall be established that will secure the largest ^ 

income with the least burden, but that every means 

will be taken to decrease, rather than increase, our i 

public expenditures. 

Business conditions are not the most promising. It 
will take time to restore the prosperity of former years. 
If we cannot promptly attain it, we can resolutely 
turn our faces in that direction and aid its return by 
friendly legislation. 

However troublesome the situation may appear, 
Congress will not, I am sure, be found lacking in di- 
sposition or ability to relieve it, as far as legislation 
can do so. 

The restoration of confidence and the revival of 
business, which men of all parties so much desire, de- 
pend more largely upon the prompt, energetic, and 
intelligent action of Congress than upon any other 
single agency affecting the situation. 

It is inspiring, too, to remember that no great em- 
ergency in the 108 years of our eventful national life 
has ever arisen that has not been met with wisdom 
and courage by the American people, with fidelity to 
their best interests and highest destiny, and to the 
honor of the American name. 

Those years of glorious history have exalted man- 
kind and advanced the cause of freedom throughout 
the world and immeasurably strengthened the pre- 
cious, free institutions which we enjoy. The people 
love and will sustain these institutions. 

The great essential to our happiness and prosperity 



488 McKlNLEY-S IJ^AUC4URAL ADDRESS 

is that we adhere to the principles upon which the 
Government was established and insist upon their 
faithful observance. Equality of rights must pre- 
vail and our laws be always and everywhere respected 
and obeyed. 

We may have failed in the discharge of our full 
duty as citizens of the great Republic, but it is con- 
soling and encouraging to realize that free speech, a 
free press, free thought, free schools, the free and un- 
molested right of religious liberty and worship, and 
free and fair elections are dearer and more universally 
enjoyed to-day than ever before. 

These guarantees must be sacredly preserved and 
wisely strengthened. The constituted authorities 
must be cheerfully and vigorously upheld. 

Lynching must not be tolerated in a great and 
civilized country like the United States ; Courts — not 
mobs — must execute the penalty of the law. 

The preservation of public order, the right of dis- 
cussion, the integrity of courts, and the orderly ad- 
ministration of justice must continue forever the rock 
of safety upon which our Government securely rests. 
One of the lessons taught by the late election, which 
all can rejoice in, is that the citizens of the United 
States are both law-respecting and law-abiding people, 
not easily swerved from the path of patriotism and 
honor. This is in entire accord with the genius of 
our institutions, and but emphasizes the advantages 
of inculcating even a greater love for law and order 
in the future. 



McKlNLEY'S INAUaURAL ADDRESS 483 

Immunity should be granted to none who violates 
the laws, whether individuals, corporations, or com- 
munities ; and as the Constitution imposes upon the 
President the duty of both its own execution and of 
the statutes enacted in pursuance of its provisions, I 
shall endeavor carefully to carry them into effect. 

The declaration of the party now restored to power 
has been in the past that of " opposition to all com- 
binations of capital organized in trusts, or otherwise, 
to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our 
citizens," and it has supported "such legislation as 
will prevent the execution of all schemes to oppress 
the people by undue charges on their supplies or by 
unjust rates for the transportation of their products 
to market." 

This purpose will be steadily pursued, both by the 
enforcement of the laws now in existence and the re- 
commendation and support of such new statutes as 
may be necessary to carry it into effect. 

Our naturalization and immigration laws should be 
further improved to the constant promotion of a safer, 
a better, and a higher citizenship. A grave peril to 
the Republic would be a citizenship, too ignorant to 
understand or too vicious to appreciate the great value 
and beneficence of our institutions and laws, and 
against all who come here to make war upon them 
our gates must be promptly and tightly closed. 

Nor must we be unmindful of the need of improve- 
ment among our own citizens, but with the zeal of 
our forefathers encourage the spread of knowledge 

32 



484 McKINLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

and free institutions. Illiteracy must be banished 
from the land, if we shall attain that high destiny as 
the foremost of the enlightened nations of the world, 
which, under Providence, we ought to achieve. 

Reforms in the civil service must go on. But the 
changes should be real and genuine, not perfunctory, 
or promoted by a zeal in behalf of any party, simply 
because it happens to be in power. 

As a member of Congress I voted and spoke in 
favor of the present law, and I shall attempt its en- 
forcement in the spirit in which it was enacted. 

The purpose in view was to secure the most efficient 
service of the best men, who would accept appoint- 
ment under the Government, retaining faithful and 
devoted public servants in office, but shielding none 
under the authority of any rule or custom, who are 
inefficient, incompetent, or unworthy. The best in- 
terests of the country demand this, and the people 
heartily approve the law wherever and whenever it 
has been thus administered. 

Congress should give prompt attention to the re- 
storation of our American merchant marine, once the 
pride of the seas in all the great ocean highways of 
commerce. 

To my mind few more important subjects so im- 
peratively demand its intelligent consideration. The 
United States has progressed with marvellous rapidity 
in every field of enterprise and endeavor until we 
have become foremost in nearly all the great lines of 
inland trade, commerce, and industry. 



I 



McKINLEY'8 INAUGUUAL ADDRESS 485 

Yet, while this is true, our American merchant 
marine has been steadily declining until it is now 
lower both in the percentage of tonnage and the num- 
ber of vessels employed than it was prior to the Civil 
War. 

Commendable progress has been made of late years 
in the upbuilding of the American navy, but we must 
supplement those efibrts by providing as a proper con- 
sort for it a merchant marine amply sufficient for our 
own carrying trade to foreign countries. The ques- 
tion is one that appeals both to our business neces- 
sities and the patriotic aspirations of a great people. 

It has been the policy of the United States since 
the foundation of the Government, to cultivate rela- 
tions of peace and amity with all the nations of the 
world, and this accords with my conception of our 
duty now. 

We have cherished the policy of non-interference 
with the affiiirs of foreign Governments, wisely in- 
augurated by Washington, keeping ourselves free from 
entaglement either as allies or foes, content to leave 
undisturbed with them the settlement of their own 
domestic concerns. 

It will be our aim to pursue a firm and dignified 
foreign policy, which shall be just, impartial, ever 
watchful of our national honor, and always insisting 
upon the enforcement of the lawful rights of Ameri- 
can citizens everywhere. 

We want no wars of conquest ; we must avoid the 
temptation of territorial aggression. War should 



486 McKINLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

never be entered upon until every agency of peace 
has failed ; peace is preferable to war in almost every 
contingency. 

Arbitration is the true method of settlement of in- 
ternational, as well as local or individual differences. 
It was recognized as the best means of adjustment of 
differences between employers and employees hy the 
Forty-ninth Congress, in 1886, and its application 
was extended to our diplomatic relations by the 
unanimous concurrence of the Senate and House of 
the Fifty-first Congress in 1890. 

The latter resolution was accepted as the basis of 
negotiations with us by the British House of Com- 
mons, in 1893, and upon our invitation a treaty of 
arbitration between the United States and Great 
Britain was signed at Washington and transmitted 
to the Senate for its ratification in January last. 

Since this treaty is clearly the result of our own 
initiative ; since it has been recofrnized as the leadina; 
feature of our foreign policy throughout our entire 
national history — the adjustment of difficulties by 
judicial methods rather than force of arms — and 
since it. presents to the world the glorious example of 
reason and peace, not passion and war, controlling 
the relations between two of the greatest nations of 
the world, an example certain to be followed by 
others, I respectfully urge the early action of the 
Senate thereon, not merely as a matter of policy but 
as a duty to mankind. 

The importance and moral influence of the ratifi- 



iMcKINLKVS IXAUCiTHA'. ADDRESS 487 

cation of such a treaty can hardly be overestimated 
in the canse of advancing civilization. It may well 
engage the best thought of the statesmen and people 
of every country, and I cannot but consider it fortu- 
nate that it was reserved to the United States to 
have the leadership in so grand a work. 

It has been the uniform practice of each President 
to avoid, as fjir as possible, the convening of Congress 
in extraordinary session. It is an example which, 
under ordinary circumstances, and in the absence of 
a public necessity, is to be commended. 

But a failure to convene the representatives of the 
people in Congress in extra session when it involves 
neglect of a public duty places the responsibility of 
such neglect upon the Executive himself. 

The condition of the public Treasury, as has been 
indicated, demands the immediate consideration of 
ConQ:ress. 

It alone has the power to provide revenues for the 
Government. Not to convene it under such circum- 
stances I can view in no other sense than the neglect 
of a plain duty. 

I do not sympathize with the sentiment that Con- 
gress in session is dangerous to our general business 
interests. Its members are the agents of the people, 
and their presence at the seat of government in the 
execution of the sovereign will should not operate as 
an injury, but a benefit. 

There could be no better time to put the Govern- 
ment upon a sound financial and economic basis than 



48$ McKINLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

now. The people have only recently voted that this 
should be done, and nothing is more binding upon 
the agents of their will than the obligation of imme- 
diate action. 

It has always seemed to me that the postponement 
of the meeting of Congress until more than a year 
after it has been chosen deprived Congress too often 
of the inspiration of the popular will, and the coun- 
try of the corresponding benefits. 

It is evident, therefore, that to postpone action in 
the presence of so great a necessity would be unwise 
on the part of the Executive because unjust to the 
interests of the people. 

Our actions now will be freer from mere partisan 
considerations than if the question of tariff revision 
was postponed until the regular session of Congress. 
We are nearly two years from a Congressional elec- 
tion, and politics cannot so greatly distract us as if 
such contest was immediately pending. We can ap- 
proach the problem calmly and patriotically without 
fearing its effect upon an early election. 

Our fellow-citizens who may disagree with us upon 
the character of this legislation prefer to have the 
question settled now, even against their preconceived 
views, and perhaps settled so reasonably — and I trust 
and believe it will be — as to insure greater perma- 
nence, than to have further uncertainty menacing 
the vast and varied business interests of the United 
States. 

A-gain, whatever action Congress may take will be 



McKlNLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 489 

given a fair opportunity for trial before the people are 
called to pass judgment upon it; and this I consider 
a great essential to the rightful and lasting settle- 
ment of the question. 

In view of these considerations, I shall deem it my 
duty as President to convene Congress in extraordin- 
ary session on Monday, the 15th day of March. 

In conclusion, I congratulate the country upon the 
fraternal spirit of the people and the manifestations 
of good-will everywhere so apparent. The recent 
election not only most fortunately demonstrated the 
obliteration of sectional or geographical lines, but to 
some extent also the prejudices which for years have 
distracted our councils and marred our true greatness 
as a nation. 

The triumph of the people, whose verdict is car- 
ried into effect to-day, is not the triumph of one sec- 
tion, nor wholly of one party, but of all sections and 
all the people. 

The North and the South no longer divide on the 
old lines, but upon principles and policies; and in 
this fact surely every lover of the country can find 
cause for true felicitation. Let us rejoice in and cul- 
tivate this spirit; it is ennobling, and will be both a 
gain and blessing to our beloved country. 

It will be my constant aim to do nothing, and per- 
mit nothing to be done, that will arrest or disturb 
this growing sentiment of unity and co-operation, this 
revival of esteem and affiliation which now animates 
so many thousands in both the old antagonistic sec- 



490 McKmLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

tions, but I shall cheerfully do everything possible to 
promote and increase it. 

Let me again repeat the words of the oath admin- 
istered by the Chief Justice, which, in their respec- 
tive spheres, so far as applicable, I would have all 
my countrymen observe : 

" I will faithfully execute the office of President 
of the United States, and will, to the best of my 
ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu- 
tion of the United States." 

This is the obligation I have reverently taken be- 
fore the Lord Most High. To keep it will be my 
single purpose ; my constant prayer — and I shall 
confidentl}^ rely upon the forbearance and assistance 
of all the people in the discharge of my solemn re- 
sponsibilities. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

PRESIDENT Mckinley's later days. 



Elected and Inaugurated President a Second Time— Triumphal Tour 
Through the South and the West, ended by Mrs. McKinley'a 
Illness. 



THE Republican National Convention of 
1900, held in Philadelphia from June 19 
to 21, unanimously nominated President 
McKinley as the standard bearer of the party. 
The hearty action of the Convention was the 
grandest possible endorsement of the President's 
first administration. For the second place on the 
ticket Theodore Roosevelt of New York was 
nominated. 

The campaign that followed the nomination 
was valiantly fought because of the tactics em- 
ployed by the opposition. In spite of the heroic 
efforts of the Democratic party, led by Mr. Bryan, 
President McKinley carried nearly every northern 
and western state, receiving a larger popular 
majority than that of four years before. This 

491 



%\ 



492 McKINLEY'S LATER DAYS. 

was a magnificent attestation of his popuia:. / 
among the people. 

In a Httle pavilion midway of the main c: ': 
door of the capitol and the heroic figm-e of Wasi- 
ington which faces the great building, Wiiliam 
McKinley, on the 4th of March, 1901, for the 
second time took the oath of office as President 
of the United States. As with uplifted hand he 
repeated the formal vow to support the consti- 
tution of the repubfic he looked into the face of 
Chief Justice Fuller, whose snowy locks and heavy 
black silk gown made him a statuesque figure in 
the ceremonial edifice. 

Grouped about the President just without the 
pavihon were the members of the cabinet, foreign 
diplomats, United States senators, representa- 
tives, governors and the distinguished statesmen 
of the period. The ceremony was performed 
quickly, however, and before the throng that 
surged toward the plaza could comprehend what 
was going on the President became his own suc- 
cessor and was reading his inaugural address. 
This was marked by a strong patriotic policy and 
was well received by the nation. The address 
comprised a reiteration of the policy of his first 
administration. 

A few weeks after the inauguration a tour by 
the President and his party was planned for the 
south and far west. As originally planned the 



McKINLEY S LATER DAYS. 493 

President was to go from Washington to New 
Orleans, stopping at several cities in the south on 
the way. Thence to Texas, making short visits 
at Dallas and Galveston, and possibly stopping at 
other small cities. The trip across western Texas, 
New Mexico, Arizona and southwestern California 
was to be hurried, the first important stopping 
place on the Pacific coast being Los Angeles. 

From Los Angeles the party was to go to San 
Francisco, there to remain several days participat- 
ing in the launching of the battle-ship Ohio and 
festivities which had been planned on an elaborate 
scale. On the north Pacific coast the President 
was to go to Portland, Seattle and Tacoma. After 
leaving Puget Sound he was to stop at one or two 
of the smaller cities in Washington, possibly in 
Idaho, and then proceed to Helena and Butte in 
Montana. Thence to the Yellowstone park, enter- 
ing it on the north and reentering his train on the 
south side of the park. 

The President had never been in the great na- 
tional park of the country and he was therefore 
to explore it as thoroughly as he could in two or 
three days. He was then to be whisked off to Salt 
Lake City, thence to Denver and Colorado Springs; 
thence to Topeka and Kansas City. Without 
making any stops of importance, his train was to 
be hurried to Duluth, where the President was to 
embark for a trip down the great lakes for Buffalo. 



494 McKINLEY'S LATER DAYS. 

On the way down he was to stop for some hours 
at Detroit and at Cleveland, and arrive at Buffalo 
some time between the 10th and 15th of June, 
where he was to be the guest of the city and par- 
ticipate in the exercises at the Pan-American ex- 
position on President's day. 

The itinerary was begun in the spring as plan- 
ned, Mrs. McKinley accompanying the President. 
The President was heartily received throughout 
the South, gala days being held wherever he 
stopped. 

On reaching the Pacific coast Mrs. McKinley 
became seriously ill, and for some days her life 
was in danger. This ended the itinerary, and as 
soon as she could be safely moved the Presidential 
party returned home by special train. A rest at 
the family home in Canton so improved Mrs. 
McKinley' s health that she was able to accom- 
pany the President to the Pan-American exposi- 
tion in September and be present on President's 
Day at the exposition. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
PRESIDENT Mckinley's assassination. 

President's Visit to the Pan-American Exposition— His Great Speech 
— Shot by Anarchist Leon Czolgosz — A Weelc in the Balance. 

PRESIDENT McKlNLEY left Washington 
about the middle of August . He was worn 
out by the cares of state and through 
worry over Mrs. McKinley's health, and went to 
his home in Canton for a brief rest. There he 
spent much of his time out of doors, driving 
about the country, visiting his farm and walking, 
and soon regained his old-time strength and vigor. 
Mrs. McKinley also improved rapidly, and on 
Wednesday, Sept. 4, accompanied by his wife, 
the Misses Barber, and Miss Sarah Duncan, his 
nieces, he left Canton for Buffalo to attend the 
Pan-American Exposition. They arrived in Buf- 
falo the same evening and were taken at once to 
the north gate of the exposition grounds. 

There an immense crowd gathered to welcome 
the nation's Executive. The people shouted, can- 

495 



496 MCKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 

nons boomed, whistles screeched, and everybody 
and everything seemed to vie in their expressions 
of joy over the arrival of the beloved President. 
A few minutes later the President, with Mrs. 
McKinley leaning on his arm, and surromided by 
the Reception Committee, left the train and took 
carriages for a drive through the grounds. No 
ruler, either ancient or modern, ever received a 
more fervent welcome than did President McKinley 
on this occasion. The President acknowledged 
the cheerings and salutations of the crowds by 
bowing and raising his hat. Mrs. McKinley, who 
looked remarkably well after the tiresome jour- 
ney, smiled happily. It was a happy city and a 
happy President that night. 

About 9 o'clock the party was driven to the 
home of John G. Milburn, President of the Ex- 
position company, where it was to be entertained 
during the stay in Buffalo. 

The day following, Thursday, September 5, had 
been set aside on the Pan-American Exposition 
calendar in the President's honor. It was the red 
letter day in the exposition's history. All Buffalo 
and thousands from all parts of the United States 
turned out to celebrate. The President was re- 
ceived at the exposition with all the ceremonial 
honors, civil and military, due his office. At the 
entrance of the grounds he was met by detach- 
ments of the United States marines, the Seacoast 



McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 497 

Artillery, and the Sixty-fifth and Seventy-fourth 
New York Regiments. A President's salute of 
twenty-one guns was fired. 

The President was at once escorted to the stand 
erected in the esplanade. There was almost ab- 
solute quiet when President Milburn arose and 
introduced the President as follows: 

^^ Ladies and Gentlemen: The President." 
The great audience broke out with a mighty 
cheer, which continued as President McKinley 
arose, and it was some minutes before he was able 
to proceed. When quiet was restored he spoke 
as follows: 

President Milburn, Director General Buchahan, Commis- 
sioners, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am glad to be again in tlie 
city of Buffalo and exchange greetings with her people, to 
whose generous hospitality I am not a stranger and with whose 
good will I have been repeatedly and signally honored. Today 
I have additional satisfaction in meeting and giving welcome 
to the foreign representatives assembled here, whose presence 
and participation in this exposition have contributed in so 
marked a degree to its interest and success. To the commis- 
sioners of the Dominion of Canada and the British colonies, 
the French colonies, the Republics of Mexico and of Central 
and South America and the commissioners of Cuba and Porto 
Rico, who share with us in this undertaking, we give the hand 
of fellowship and felicitate with them upon the triumphs of 
art, science, education and manufacture which the old has 
bequeathed to the new century. 

Expositions are the time-keepers of progress. They 
record the world's advancement. They stimulate the energy, 
enterprise and intellect of the people and quicken human 



498 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 

genius. They go into the home. They broaden and brighten 
the daily life of the people. They open mighty storehouses of 
information to the student. Every exposition, great or small, 
has helped to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is 
always educational, and, as such, instructs the brain and hand 
of man. Friendly rivalry follows, which is the spur to indus- 
trial improvement, the inspiration to useful invention and to 
high endeavor in all departments of human activity. It exacts 
a study of the wants, comforts and even the whims of the 
people and recognizes the efficacy of high quality and low 
prices to win their favor. The quest for trade is an incentive 
to men of business to invent, improve and economize in the 
cost of production. Business life, whether among ourselves 
or with other people, is ever a sharp struggle for success. It 
will be none the less so in the future. Without competition 
we would be clinging to the clumsy and antiquated processes 
of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of 
loncy ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than 
the eighteenth century. 

The Pan-American Exposition has done its work thoi. 
oughly, presenting in its exhibits evidences of the highest 
skill and illustrating the progress of the human family in the 
western hemisphere. This portion of the earth has no cause 
for humiliation for the part it has performed in the march 
of civilization. It has not accomplished everything; far from 
it. It has simply done its best, and without vanity or boast- 
fulness, and, recognizing the manifold achievements of others, 
it invites the friendly rivalry of all the powers in the peaceful 
pursuits of trade and commerce, and will cooperate with all in 
advancing the highest and best interests of humanity. The 
wisdom and energy of all the nations are none too great for the 
world's work. The success of art, science, industry and in- 
vention is an international asset and a common glory. 

After all, how near one to the other is every part of ttrc 



McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 499 

world! Modern inventions have brought into close relation 
widely separated peoples and made them better acquainted. 
Geographic and political divisions will continue to exist, but 
distances have been effaced. Swift ships and fast trains are 
becoming cosmopolitan. They invade fields which a few years 
ago were impenetrable. The worlds products are exchang- 
ed as never before, and with increasing transporation facilities 
comes increasing knowledge and trade. Prices are fixed with 
mathematical precision by supply and demand. The world's 
selling prices are regulated by market and crop reports. We 
travel greater distances in a sliorter space of time and with 
more ease than was ever dreamed of by the fathers. 

Isolation is no longer jpossible or desirable. The same 
important news is I'ead, though in different languages, the 
same day in all Christendom. The telegraph keeps us advised 
of what is occuring eveiywhere and the press foreshadows, 
with more or less accuracy, the plans and purposes of the na- 
tions. Market prices of pi'oducts and of securities are hourly 
known in every commercial mart and the investments of the 
people extend beyond their own national boundaries into the 
remotest parts of the earth. Vast transactions are conduct- 
ed and international exchanges are made by the tick of the 
cable. Every event of interest is immediately bulletined. 
The quick gathering and transmission of news, like rapid tran- 
sit, are of recent origin and are only made possible by the 
genius of the inventor and the courage of the investor. 

It took a special messenger of the government, wath every 
facility known at the time for rapid travel, nineteen days to 
go from the city of Washington to New Orleans with a mes- 
sage to General Jackson that the war with England had ceased 
and a treaty of peace had been signed. How different now! 
We reached General Miles in Porto Rico by cable and he was 
able through the militar}^ telegraph to stop his army on the 
firing line with the message that the United States and Spain 



500 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 

had signed a protocol suspending hostilities. We knew almost 
instantly of the first shot fired at Santiago, and the subsequent 
surrender of the Spanish forces was known at Washington 
within less than an hour of its consunamation. The first ship 
of Cervera's fleet had hardly emerged from that historic har- 
bor when the fact was flashed to our capital and the swift de- 
struction that followed was announced immediately through 
the wonderful medium of telegraphy. So accustomed are we 
to safe and easy communication with distant lands that its 
temporary interruption even in ordinary times results in loss 
and inconvenience. 

We shall never forget the days of anxious waiting and 
awful suspense when no information was permitted to be sent 
from Pekin, and the diplomatic representatives of the nations 
in China, cut off from all communication inside and outside of 
the walled capital, were surrounded by an angry and misguided 
mob that threatened their lives; nor the joy that thrilled the 
world when a single message from the government of the 
United States brought through our minister, the first news of 
the safety of the besieged diplomats. 

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not 
a mile of steam railroad on the globe. Now there are enough 
miles to make its circuit many times. Then there was not 
a mile of electric telegraph ; now we have a vast mileage travers- 
ing all lands and all seas. God and man have linked the na- 
tions together. No nation can longer be indifi'erent to any 
other. And as we are brought more and more in touch with 
each other the less occasion is there for misunderstandings 
and the stronger the disposition, when we have differences, to 
adjust them in the court of arbitration, which is the noblest 
forum for the settlement of international disputes. 

My fellow citizens, trade statistics indicate that this 
country is in a state of unexampled prosperity. The figures 
are almost appalling. They show that we are utilizing our 



McKINLEYS ASSASSINATION. 501 

fields and forests and mines and that wo are furnishing profit- 
able employment to the millions of workingmen throughout 
the United States, bringing comfort and happiness to their 
homes and making it possible to lay by savings for old age and 
disability. That all the people are participating in this great 
prosperity is seen in every American community and shown by 
the enormous and unprecedented deposits in our savings banks. 
Our duty is the care and security of these deposits, and their 
safe investment demands the highest integrity and the best 
business capacity of those in charge of these depositories of 
the people's earnings. 

Our capacity to produce has developed so enormously and 
our products have so multiplied that the problem of more 
markets requires our urgent and immediate attention. Only a 
broad and enlightened policy will keep what we have. No 
other policy will get more. In these times of marvelous busi- 
ness energy and gain we ought to be looking to the future, 
strenghtening the weak places in our industrial and commercial 
systems, that we may be ready for any storm or strain. 

By sensible trade arrangements which will not interrupt 
our home production we shall extend the outlets for our in- 
creasing surplus. We must not repose in fancied security that 
we can forever sell everything and buy little or nothing. If 
such a thing were possible it would not be best for us or for 
those with whom we deal. We should take from our customers 
such of their products as we can use without harm to our in- 
dustries and labor. Reciprocity is the natural outgrowth of 
our wonderful industrial development under the domestic policy 
now firmly established. What we produce beyond our domestic 
consumption must have a vent abroad. The excess must be 
relieved through a foreign outlet and we should sell every- 
where we can and buy wherever the buying will enlarge our 
sales and productions and thereby make a greater demand for 
home labor. 



502 



MCKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 



The period of exclusiveness is past. Ttie expansion of 
our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial 
wars are unprofitable. A policy of good will and friendly 
trade relations will prevent reprisals. Reciprocity treaties are 
in harmony with the spirit of the times; measures of retaliation 
are not. 

If, perchance, some of our tariflfs are no longer needed 
for revenue or to encourage and protect our industries at home, 
why should they not be employed to extend and promote our 
markets abroad? Then, too, we have inadequate steamship 
service. New lines of steamers have already been put in com- 
mission between the Pacific coast ports of the United States 
and those on the western coasts of Mexico and Central and 
South America. These should be followed up with direct 
steamship lines between the eastern coast of the United States 
and South American ports. One of the needs of the times is 
direct commercial lines from our vast fields of production to 
the fields of consumption that we have barely touched. Next 
in advantage to having the thing to sell is to have the conven- 
ience to carry it to the buyer. 

We must encourage our merchant marine. We must have 
more ships. They must be under the American flag, built and 
manned and owned by Americans. These will not only be 
profitable in a commercial sense ; they will be messengers of 
peace and amity wherever they go. 

We must build the Isthmian Canal, which will unite the 
two oceans and give a straight line of water communication 
with the western coasts of Central and South America and 
Mexico. The construction of a Pacific cable cannot be longer 
postponed. 

In the furtherance of these objects of national interest and 
concern you are performing an important part. This exposi- 
tion would have touched the heart of that American statesman 
whose mind was ever alert and thought ever constant for a 



McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 503 

larger commerce and ti truer fraternity of the republics of the 
new world. His broad American spirit is felt and manifested 
here. He needs no identification to an assemblage of Ameri- 
cans anywhere, for the name of Blaine is inseparably associat- 
ed with the Pan-American movement which finds this practical 
and substantial expression and which we all hope will be firm- 
ly advanced by the Pan-American congress that assembles this 
autumn in the capital of Mexico. 

Upon the conclusion of his address a large num- 
ber of people broke through the lines around the 
stand and the President held an impromptu i:e- 
ception for fifteen minutes, shaking hands with 
thousands. The carriages were then brought to 
the steps of the stand and the President, accom- 
panied by the diplomatic corps and specially in- 
vited guests made a tour of the Exposition 
grounds. 

Mrs. McKinley left the stand at the conclusion 
of the speech-making and was taken to the Wo- 
man's Building, where she was entertained by the 
women managers. 

In the evening Mr. and Mrs. McKinley visited 
the Exposition grounds to view the illumination 
and fireworks. 

On the following day, Friday, September 6, 
President and Mrs. McKinley, escorted by Presi- 
dent Milburn, of the Exposition, and several dis- 
tinguished guests, visited Niagara falls. It was the 
second day of the President's visit and was to 
have been the last. The programme for the day 



504 



McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 



included only the visit to the falls, a public recep- 
tion at the Temple of Music, a quiet dinner party 
and the start for Washington. 

A special train carried the party to Niagara, and 
from the suspension bridge the President and his 
party viewed the mighty cataract for some time. 
Carriages were at hand and the party drove to the 
International Hotel, where lunch was served, and 
soon afterward, in high spirits, the guests re- 
entered the train and whirled back to Buffalo. 

Mrs. McKinley, tired by the day's outing, did 
not return to the Exposition grounds, but was 
driven to the Milburn residence. The President was 
driven direct to the Temple of Music, where the re- 
ception was to be held. A great throng was gath- 
ered in and around the building. On the eastern 
side of the building was a dais on which stood the 
great organ. During the wait for the President's 
appearance an organ recital was given, and the 
applause had scarcely died away when a ringing 
cheer from the outside announced the arrival of 
the President. A narrow lane was' forced in the 
crowd and through it the President, leaning on the 
arm of President Milburn and followed by Secre- 
tary Cortelyou and half a dozen secret service 
operatives, passed quickly to the little platform 
and took his stand near the organ. 

On his right stood Mr. Milburn and on his left 
Secretary Cortelyou. Close at hand stood the se- 



McKINLEYS ASSASSINATION. 505 

cret service detectives forming the President's 
bodyguard. 

To this reception the general pubhc had been 
invited. No man, woman, or child, no matter of 
what color, birth, or pohtical belief, was refused 
admission. The President had been introduced to 
the great crowd which had thronged the Temple 
of Music, and all came forward in a line for a per- 
sonal greeting. 

Among those in hne was Leon Czolgosz, whose 
right hand was wrapped in a handkerchief. 
Folded in the handkerchief was a thirty-two cali- 
ber revolver. So carefully was the weapon con- 
cealed, however, and so deftly had the handker- 
chief been arranged that no suspicions were 
aroused in the detective who stood close by the 
President to guard against any such emergency. 
The hand simply had the appearance of having 
been wrapped up to cover some sore or bruise. 

A little girl was led up by her father, and the 
President shook hands with her. As she passed 
along to the right the President looked after her 
smilingly and waved his hand in a pleasant adieu. 

Next in line came a boyish-featured man about 
twenty-six years old, preceded by a short Italian, 
who leaned backward against the bandaged hand 
of his follower. The officers who attended the 
President noted this man, their attention being 
first attracted by the Italian, whose dark, shaggy 



506 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 

brows and black mustache caused the professional 
protectors to regard him with suspicion. 

The man with the bandaged hand and innocent 
face received no attention from the detective be- 
yond the mental observation that "his right hand 
was apparently injured, and that he would present 
his left hand to the President. 

The Italian stood before the palm bower. He 
held the President's hand so long that the officers 
stepped forward to break the clasp and make 
room for the man with the bandaged hand, who 
extended the left member towards the Presi- 
dent's right. 

The President smiled and presented his right 
hand in a position to meet the left of the ap- 
proaching man. Hardly a foot of space intervened 
between the bodies of the two men. Before their 
hands met two pistol shots w^ere fired, and the 
President turned slightly to the left and reeled. 
The tall, innocent-looking young man had fired 
through the bandage without removing any por- 
tion of the handkerchief. 

The first bullet struck the sternum in the Pres- 
ident's chest, deflected to the right, and traveled 
beneath the skin to a point directly beneath the 
right nipple. The second bullet penetrated the 
abdomen, pierced both walls of the stomach, and 
lodged in the back. Only a superficial wound was 
caused by the first bullet, and within five minutes 



McKTXLEY'S ASSASSINATlOx\. 507 

after the physicians had reached the President's 
side it had heen removed. The second bullet — 
the fatal one — was never found. 

On receiving the first shot President McKinley 
hfted himself on liis toes with something of a gasp. 
His movement caused the second shot to enter 
just below the navel. With the second shot the 
President doubled shghtly forward and then sank 
back. Detective Geary caught the President in his 
arms and President Milburn helped to support him. 

When the President fell into the arms of Detec- 
tive Geary he coolly asked: "Am I shot?" 

Geary unbottoned the President's vest, and, 
seeing blood, replied: "I fear you are, Mr. Presi- 
dent." 

It had all happened in an instant. Almost be- 
fore the noise of the second shot sounded Czolgosz 
was seized by S. K. Ireland, United States secret 
service man, who stood directly opposite the Presi- 
dent. Ireland hurled him to the floor, and as he 
fell a negro waiter, James B. Parker, who once 
worked in Chicago, leaped upon him. Soldiers of 
the United States artillery detailed at the recep- 
tion sprang upon them and he was surrounded by 
a squad of exposition pohce and secret service de- 
tectives . Meanwhile Ireland and the negro held the 
assassin, endeavoring to shield him from the 
attacks of the infuriated artillerymen and the 
blows of the poUcemen's clubs. 



508 McKINLEYS ASSASSINATION. 

Supported by Detective Geary and President 
Milburn, and surrounded by Secretary George B. 
Cortelyou and half a dozen exposition officials, 
the President was assisted to a chair, where he 
sank back with one hand holding his abdomen, the 
other fumbling at his breast. His eyes were open 
and he was clearly conscious of all that had trans- 
pired. He was suffering the most intense pain, 
but true to his noble nature his first thought was 
of others — one other in particular, his wife. 

He looked up into President Milburn's face 
and gasped: "Cortelyou." The President's secre- 
tary bent over him. "Cortelyou," said the Presi- 
dent, "my wife, be careful about her. Don't let 
her know." 

His next thought was of the cruel assassin who 
had struck him down. Moved by a paroxysm he 
writhed to the left, and then his eyes fell on the 
prostrate form of Czolgosz, lying on the floor 
bloody and helpless beneath the blows of the 
police, soldiers, and detectives. 

The President raised his right hand, red with 
his own blood, and placed it on the shoulder of his 
secretary. "Let no one hurt him," he gasped, 
and sank back in his chair, while the guards carried 
Czolgosz out of his sight. 

The ambulance from the exposition hospital 
was summoned immediately, and the President, 
still conscious, sank upon the stretcher, and in 



MeKINLEYS ASSASSINATION. 509 

nine minutes after the shooting the President was 
waiting the arrival of surgeons, who had been 
summoned from all sections of the city and by 
special train from Niagara Falls. 

On the way to the hospital the President said 
to Mr. Milburn: "I am sorry to have been the 
cause of trouble to the exposition." 

Within ten minutes after he received his wounds, 
stricken with pain as he was, the President had 
given expression to three thoughts. First, and 
most natural, that the news should be kept from 
his invahd wife ; second, that the would-be assassin, 
worthless as his hfe was, should not be harmed ; 
and third, regret that the tragedy might hurt the 
exposition and interfere with the pleasure of 
others. 

Six doctors were at the President's side within 
thirty seconds after his arrival — Dr. E. W. Lee of 
St. Louis, Dr. Storer of Chicago, Dr. Van Peyms 
of Buffalo, and Dr. Hall, Dr. Ellis, and Dr. Mann, 
Jr., of the exposition hospital stafi. The nurses 
were equally prompt, for they had made ready for 
the task of the surgeons while the ambulance was 
coming from the Temple of Music. 

The President was stripped and placed on an 
operating table where the surgeons might see his 
wounds. The first assistance was rendered by 
Dr. Lee, who was the medical director of the 
Omaha exposition. The President recognized him 



T( 



510 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 

and ;said: "Doctor, do whatever is necessary." 

The hospital stewards were busy removing the 
President's apparel when Dr. Herman Mynter ar- 
rived. The surgeons consulted and hesitated 
about performing an operation. The President 
reassured them by expressing his confidence, but 
no decision was reached until Dr. Matthew D. 
Mann of the exposition hospital staff arrived. 
After another consultation Dr. Mann informed 
the President that an operation was necessary. 

"All right," repUed the President. "Go ahead. 
Do whatever is proper." 

Dr. Mann performed the operation. His first 
assistant was Dr. Mynter. His second assistant 
was Dr. John Parmenter. His third assistant was 
Dr. Lee. Dr. Nelson W. Wilson noted the time 
of the operation and took notes. Dr. Eugene 
Wasdin of the Marine Hospital gave the anaes- 
thetic. Dr. Kixey, the President's personal phy- 
sician, arrived at the latter part of the operation 
and held the hght. Dr. Koswell Park, who had 
been summoned from Niagara Falls, arrived at the 
close of the operation. 

The operation lasted almost an hour. A cut 
about five inches long was made. It was found 
necessary to turn up the stomach of the Presi- 
dent in order to trace the course of the bullet. 
The bullet's opening in the front wall of the stom- 
ach was small, and it was carefully closed with 



McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 511 

sutures, after which a search was made for the 
hole in the back wall of the stomach. 

This hole, where the bullet left the stomach, 
was larger than that in the front wall of the stom- 
ach, in fact, it was a wound over an inch in diame- 
ter, jagged and ragged. It was sewed up in three 
layers. 

In turning up the stomach, an act performed by 
Dr. Mann with rare skill, the danger was that 
some of the contents of the stomach might go into 
the abdominal cavity, and cause peritonitis. It 
so happened that there was little in the President's 
stomach at the time of the operation. Moreover, 
subsequent developments showed that this feature 
of the operation was grandly successful and none 
of the contents of the stomach entered the abdomi- 
nal cavity. 

The anaesthetic administered was ether, and for 
two and a half hours the President was under its 
influence. He came out of the operation strong, 
with a good pulse and steady heart action. 

The operation over, arrangements were made to 
remove the President to the Milburn house before 
any reaction might set in. The shooting occurred 
shortly after 4 o'clock and at 7 :25 the ambulance 
backed up to the hospital door to remove the 
President. The people had been told previously 
that the operation was over and that the President 
was in a critical condition. They fell back to a 



512 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 

respectful distance while tlie body was being placed 
in an ambulance. All heads were bare until the 
wagon drove out of sight. 

As sooji as the President had been removed 
from the Temple of Music to the hospital, Director 
General W. I. Buchanan started for the Milburn 
residence, where Mrs. McKinley was resting. He 
went to forestall any information that might reach 
her by telephone or otherwise. The Misses Barber 
and Miss Duncan, the President's nieces, and Mrs. 
Milburn were also at the house. Mr. Buchanan 
informed the nieces as gently as possible and con- 
sulted Mrs. Milburn as to the best course to pursue 
in telhng Mrs. McKinley of the tragedy. It was 
decided that on her awakening from her nap Mr. 
Buchanan should see her, if, in the meantime Dr. 
Eixey had not arrived. 

Mrs. McKinley awoke at 5:30 o'clock, and, feel- 
ing much rested, took up her crocheting. When 
it became dusk and her husband did not return 
she began to worry and made inquiries of the 
family as to the probable reason for his tardiness. 
By this time Dr. Eixey had arrived, and it was 
decided that he should break the news to her. As 
to just how he informed her of the mishap to her 
husband reports differ. 

However, she was informed by Dr. Eixey, the 
physician who has attended her for some time, 
who went to her and said simply: "The Presi- 
dent has been hurt." 



McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 513 

''How was he hurt?" asked Mrs. McKinley. 

" Well, a man shot at him and one of the shots 
took effect, but we do not think he is badly hurt, 
and we think he will recover." 

Mrs. McKinley was excited, but she did not 
lose her self-control. She immediately asked to be 
told all the particulars. 

"Tell me all," she said. "Do not keep any- 
thing back. I will be brave." 

And she was brave throughout the long days 
and nights of worry. She asked to see her hus- 
band as soon as he was brought to the Milburn 
house, but when told that it would be injudicious 
she became reconciled. As soon as he began to 
• mend she was allowed to see him every day for a 
short time. 

The President was taken to a large bed-room on 
the second floor. Everything had been quietly 
arranged for him before his arrival from the hos- 
pital. Every medical apphance was within easy 
reach, the professional nurses were in waiting, 
and quarters were arranged for the doctors. 

The President passed the first night after the 
shooting fairly comfortably. His temperatm-e 
increased from 100° to 100.6° between 1 and 3 a. 
m., and fears were entertained that peritonitis 
might set in. The doctors chosen to care for 
the case, P. M. Eixey, M. B.Mann, Eoswell Park, 
H. Mynter, and Eugene Wasdin, were in attend- 



514 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 

ance at the President's bedside all night, watching 
carefully each symptom. 

At 10 :40 p. m. the doctors issued this bulletin : 
" The President is rallying satisfactorily and is 
resting comfortably. Temperature, 100.4° ; pulse, 
124; respiration, 24." 

At 1:30 a. m. the bulletin read: " The Presi- 
dent is free from pain and resting well. Tempera- 
ture, 100.2°; pulse, 120; respiration, 24." 

At 3:15 a. m. the bulletin read: ''The Presi- 
dent continues to rest well. Temperature, 101.6° ; 
pulse, 110; respiration, 24. 

Saturday, the day following the shooting, was 
one of grave anxiety. The President, while hold- 
ing his own, was approaching, so the doctors said, 
a crisis. It was thought that Sunday would 
decide what effect the shots fired by Czolgosz 
would be. Dr. Eixey gave it as his opinion that 
the President would recover. The other physi- 
cians refused to commit themselves, saying that 
they could not make promises until further de- 
velopments. 

An X-ray apparatus was brought from Thomas 
A. Edison's laboratory with which it was intended 
to locate the bullet which lodged in the back. It 
was not used. On Sunday morning at 5 o'clock 
the physicians issued this bulletin: "The Presi- 
dent has passed a fairly good night. Pulse, 122; 
temperature, 102.4°; respiration, 24." 



XcKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 515 

Sunday proved a rather uneventful day. The 
anticipated crisis did not materiahze. The news 
was good throughout the day. The President's 
temperature on Sunday evening was a degree lower 
than it was .during the morning, the pulse was 
slower, and the respiration easier. Dr. Charles 
McBurney of New York, one of the most noted 
surgeons in the world, arrived during the day and 
held a consultation with the other doctors at 3 
o'clock Sunday afternoon. 

Immediately following the consultation this bul- 
letin was issued: " The President, since the last 
bulletin (3 p. m.) has slept quietly, four hours 
altogether, since 9 o'clock. His condition is satis- 
factory to all the physicians present. Pulse, 128; 
temperature, 101°; respiration, 28." 

The President improved so rapidly on Monday 
that his friends declared he would be able to attend 
the duties of his office within a month. The 
worst danger was regarded as past, peritonitis 
seemed no longer probable, and the only cause for 
fear was the possibility of a sinking spell. 

The bulletins throughout Monday were hopeful. 
One said the President had passed a somewhat 
restless night, sleeping fairly well; and another 
declared the President's condition was ''becoming 
more and more satisfactory," and adding that 
"untoward incidents are less likely to occur." 
One is at 3 p. m. stated: "The President's 



516 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 

condition steadily improves and he is comfortable, 
without pain or unfavorable symptoms. Bowel 
and kidney functions normally performed." 

The last bulletin for the day, issued at 9 :30 p.m., 
said: "The President's condition continues favor- 
able. Pulse, 112; temperature, 101°; respira- 
tion, 27." 

Mrs. McKinley felt so encouraged that she took 
a drive during the afternoon. 

News from the bedside on Tuesday was more 
favorable stiU. The danger point was regarded as 
past, and fast recovery was the general prediction. 
The doctors had only two services — aside, of 
course, from careful watching — to perform. One 
was to open in part the President's outside wound 
to remove some foreign substances, and the other 
was to give him food for the first time. It de- 
veloped that a portion of the President's clothing 
had been carried into the wound by the bullet, and 
this had not all been removed at the first opera- 
tion. As slight irritation was caused by the cloth, 
the surgeons removed it. The operation caused 
no harm, and httle annoyance to the patient. 

The President felt so well that he asked for 
some newspapers to read. The request was denied. 
The President enjoyed the food given him — beef 
extract. At 10:30 o'clock on Tuesday night the 
physicians issued this bulletin: "The condition of 
the President is unchanged in all important par- 



McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 517 

tioulars. His temperature is 100.6°; pulse, 114; 
respiration, 28." 

Wednesday was another day full of hopeful 
signs. The President continued to show remark- 
able recuperative powers and passed the day with- 
out the slightest unfavorable symptom. He was 
able to retain food on his stomach, and surprised 
and amused his doctors by asking for a cigar. He 
was not allowed to smoke, but he was placed in a 
new bed. He was also given a bath. His highest 
temperature on Wednesday was 100.4. That was 
at 10 o'clock in the evening. The highest point 
reached by his pulse was 120 — at 6 a. m. — and his 
respiration remained normal at 26. 

It was on Thursday, just six days after the 
shooting, that the President suffered a relapse. 
Everybody was still full of hopes until 8.30 o'clock 
in the evening, when the physicians announced 
officially that the President's condition was not so 
good. The problem of disposing of the food in the 
stomach was becoming a serious one, and the 
danger of heart failure increased. At midnight 
the situation was critical. Calomel and oil were 
given to flush the bowels and digit aHs to quiet the 
heart. The bowels moved soon afterwards, and 
the patient improved. The pulse dropped to 120, 
and the prospect was regarded as brighter. 

Shortly after 2 o'clock Friday morning, the 
physicians and nurses detected a weakening of the 



518 



McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 



heart action. The pulse fluttered and weakened 
and the President sank toward a collapse. The end 
appeared at hand. Eestoratives were applied 
speedily, but they did not at once prove effective. 
It was then decided to send for the other physi- 
cians, relatives, members of the Cabinet and close 
personal friends of the President. 

The full corps of doctors were soon on the scene 
and all set to work as they never worked before. 
About 6 a. m. the President ralhed and seemed to 
have a fighting chance. At 6:30 o'clock he was 
thought to be dying. At 7 o'clock it was an- 
announced by Abner McKinley, brother of the 
President, that he was sleeping quietly, watched 
closely by his physicians. 

At 8:40 o'clock Mr. Milburn told a friend who 
called to see him that they were encouraged by 
the developments of the last half hour and that 
they thought the President had a fighting chance. 

About 9 a. m. the following bulletin was issued: 
"The President's condition has improved some- 
what during the last few hours. There is a better 
response to stimulation. He is conscious and free 
from pain. Pulse, 128; temperature, 99.8." 

The remaining hours of the day were spent in 
hoping against hope, and in a vain fight on the 
part of the doctors. Members of the Cabinet and 
others near to the President, came and went at 
frequent intervals during the day, deeply moved 
over the situation. 



McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 519 

At 12 :30 the following bulletin was issued : 

"The President's physicians report that his con- 
dition is practically unchanged since the 9 o'clock 
bulletin. He is sleeping quietly." 

At 2.30 in the afternoon this bulletin was given 
to the public : 

"The President has more than held his own, 
and his condition justifies the expectation of fur- 
ther improvement. He is better than yesterday 
at this time. Pulse, 123; temperature, 99.4." 

At 4 p. m. came this bulletin: 

"The President's physicians report that he is 
only slightly improved. Since the last bulletin 
the pulse and temperature remain the same as at 
that hour." 

This was followed by another at 5 :48 as foUows : 

"The President is suffering from extreme pros- 
tration. Oxygen is being given. He responds to 
stimulation but poorly. Pulse, 125; respiration, 
40." 

At 6:15 this was followed by another, reading: 

"In spite of vigorous stimulation the President's 
depression continues and is profound. Unless it 
be relieved the end is but a question of time." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

DEATH OF PRESIDENT McEINLEY. 

Dies Peacefully at 2:15 a. m., Saturday, September 14— Fond Farewell 
of Husband and Wife — Last Words, "Nearer, My God, to 
Thee." 

PEACEFULLY and gentty like the faint flick- 
ering of a burned-out candle, President 
McKinley breathed his last at 2:15, Sat- 
urday morning, September 14, 190L Words of 
consolation to his wife were the last that passed 
his lips, and they came after a general " good-by " 
said to the American people, whom he had loved 
all his life. 

Those present in the room when the President 
died were: Dr. Rixey, Abner McKinley, Mrs. 
Sarah Duncan, Miss Helen McKinley, Miss Mary 
Barber, Miss Sarah Duncan, Lieutenant James F. 
McKinley, W. C. Duncan, T. M. Osborn, Colonel 
Webb C. Hayes, Comptroller Charles G. Dawes, 
Colonel W. C. Brown, Secretary Cortelyou, John 
Barber, three nurses and three orderlies. Mrs. 
McKinley was not present. She had taken her 



DEATH OF McKINLEY. 

last farewell from her kusband and had been in- 
duced to retire. 

Before 6 o'clock the evening before, it was clear 
to those at the President's bedside that he was 
dying, and preparations were made for the last 
sad offices of farewell from those who were near- 
est and dearest to him. Oxygen had been ad- 
ministered steadily, but with little effect in keep- 
ing back the approach of death. 

The President came out of one period of uncon- 
sciousness only to relapse into another. But in this 
period, when his mind was partially clear, occurred 
a series of events of profoundly touching charac- 
ter. Down stairs, with strained and tear-stained 
faces, members of the Cabinet were grouped in 
anxious waiting. They knew the end was near 
and that the time had come when they must see 
him for the last time on earth. 

This was about 6 o'clock. One by one they as- 
cended the stairway — Secretary Root, Secretary 
Hitchcock and Attorney General Knox. Secre- 
tary Wilson also was there, but he held back, not 
wishing to see the President in his last agony. 
There was only a momentary stay of the Cabinet 
officers at the threshold of the death chamber. 
Then they withdrew, the tears streaming down 
their faces and the words of intense grief choking 
in their throats. 

At 7:55 o'clock the President recovered con- 



DEATH OF McKINLEY. 

sciousness, and realizing that the end was at hand 
he asked for Mrs. McKinley. She was taken into 
the room and to her husband's bedside. All left 
the room, save one nm^se, and the husband and 
wife were practically alone. The strong face of 
the dying man lighted up with a smile as their 
hands were clasped. 

The President was able to speak faintly as his 
wife bent over him. What he said only he and 
she know. Those who know how tenderly and 
constantly he has cared for her and how great his 
anxiety has been for her ever since he was stricken 
down by the anarchist's bullet can hardly speak of 
that pitiful scene without almost breaking down 
at the thought of it. 

Just before the President lost consciousness 
Mrs. McKinley knelt at his side. He knew her 
and said: " Good-by, all; good-bye. It is God's 
way; not our will, but Thine be done." And then 
he said faintly, speaking to no one in particular, 
'' Nearer, my God, to Thee." It was a long leave- 
taking, and, finally, they carried her half fainting 
to her room. They watched over her anxiously. 
They feared the effect of the severing of bonds 
which were so close and upon which she was so 
dependent. News of what was happening went 
down stairs and out into the street. It was 
received everywhere with tears. 

"They are saying good-bye to each other," pec- 



DEATH OF Mckinley. 523 

pie whispered in the streets, all along those 
crowded blocks near the house. Every one was 
thinking of what the life of these two had been, 
of the intense, beautiful devotion each to the 
other, of what a tender, chivalrous lover-husband 
he had been. 

It was impossible to think of this and then of 
the scene in that room upon which the thoughts 
of the whole world were centered, without feehng 
the eyes grow hot under the lids and a lump come 
into the throat. In that room it was, for the 
moment, not the head of the mightiest nation on 
earth who was dying, it was a husband and lover 
standing by the dark river and giving the last 
look of love to that sad, lonely invalid woman, to 
whom his smile and cheerful words were literally 
the breath of life. 

As the news spread, the hush that was always 
upon the hundred or more people within the ropes 
seemed to become deeper. It was like the solemn 
stillness of a church, so far as those nearest the 
house were concerned. The only sound was the 
swift clicking of the telegraph instruments as the 
news was rushed away to all parts of the country. 

The President continued in an unconscious con- 
dition to the end. Dr. Rixey remained with him 
until death came. The other doctors were in the 
room at times, and then repaired to the front 
room, where their consultations had been held. 



524 DEATH OF McKINLEY, 

About 2 o'clock Dr. Rixey noted the unmistak- 
able signs of dissolution, and the immediate mem- 
bers of the family were summoned to the bedside. 
Mrs. McKinley was asleep, and it was deemed 
desirable not to awaken her for the last moments 
of anguish. 

Silently and sadly the members of the family 
stole into the room. They stood about the foot 
and sides of the bed where the great man's life 
was ebbiijg away. 

In an adjoining room sat the physicians, includ- 
ing Drs. McBurney, Wasdin, Park, Stockton, and 
Mynter. 

It was now 2:05 o'clock, and the minutes were 
slipping away. Only the sobs of those in the 
circle about the President's bedside broke the 
awe-like silence. 

Five minutes passed, then six, seven, eight — 

Now Dr. Rixey bent forward, and then one of 
his hands was raised, as if in warning. The flut- 
tering heart was just going to rest. A moment 
more and Dr. Rixey straightened up, and with 
choking voice said: 

^'The President is dead!" 

Secretary Cortelyou was the first to turn from 
the stricken circle. He stepped from the chamber 
to the outer hall, and then down the stairway to 
the large room where the members of the Cabinet, 
Senators, and distinguished officials were assem- 



DEATH OF McKINLEY. 525 

bled. As his tense, white face appeared at the 
doorway a hush fell upon the assemblage. 

"Gentlemen, the President has passed away," 
he said. 

For a moment not a word came in reply. Even 
though the end had been expected, the actual 
announcement that William McKinley was dead 
fairly stunned these men who had been his closest 
confidants and advisers. Then a groan of anguish 
went up from the assembled officials. They cried 
outright like children. All the pent-up emotions 
of the last few days were let loose. They turned 
from the room and came from the house with 
streaming eyes. 

Leaving the stricken circle Secretary Cortelyou 
left the house and walked down to the ropes 
where the waiting correspondents stood ready to 
send the sad news on lightning's wings to the 
people who had always been uppermost in the 
thoughts and deeds of the dead President. 

"Gentlemen," he said, "the President passed 
away at 2:15." 



CHAPTER XXV. 

BURIAL OF PRESIDENT McKINLET. 

Private Funeral Services — Lying in State at Buffalo and Washington- 
Interment at Canton. 

AS THE daily life of William McKinley 
was marked by the greatest simplicity, 
so were the last rites and services over 
his casket. 

The private funeral services were held at the 
Milburn residence, Sunday, September 15, at 
eleven o'clock in the morning. The casket had 
been placed in the library, with the silken folds 
of an American flag draped about it. Red roses, 
white chrysanthemums and wreaths of purple 
violets lay at the foot of the bier. 

Two hundred cards had been issued and shortly 
before the appointed time the invited few began 
to arrive. Senator Hanna was among the first. 
President Roosevelt arrived just before the ap- 
pointed time for the services. The immediate 
members of the McKinley family gathered in a 



BURIAL OF McKINLEy. 

room adjoining the library. Mrs. McKinley was 
not with them. Surrounded by Mrs. Barber, Miss 
Barber, Mrs. Garret Hobart and Dr. Rixey, she 
was seated in the upper hallway where every Vv^ord 
pronounced over the casket that contained all 
that she held dear in the world could reach her. 

Senator Hanna was the first man of national 
prominence to enter the library. He was followed 
by the Cabinet members, w^ho took places on the 
left of the casket. As President Roosevelt entered 
everyone rose. He walked gravely tolthe head of 
the casket. For a moment he gazed on the face 
of McKinley. Turning, he spoke in a low voice 
toi Secretary Long, who stood next. He evidently 
requested that cabinet precedence be observed, 
for there was an immediate change in the positions 
of the Cabinet members. 

When the funeral services were held at the Mil- 
burn house Mrs. McKinley was unable to come 
down stairs. Sedatives had been given her and 
the President's remains had been taken away 
without her knowing of their removal. 

At this moment Rev. Dr. Charles Edw^ard Locke 
of the Delaware Avenue Methodist Episcopal 
Church, son of that Dr. Locke who for many years 
was the McKinley pastor at Canton, entered the 
room. 

The quartette of the First Presbyterian Church, 
made up of Miss Kate Tyreil, Mrs. Clara Barnes 



528 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 

Holmes, Raymond O. Rietpeister and George C. 
Sweet, had been standing in the dining room, and 
with the sweet strains of that favorite hymn of the 
late President, ^'Lead Kindly light," the services 
were begun. 

As the last strains died away Dr. Locke began 
reading the chapter in the I. Corinthians, that, 
from its sad associations, has become so familiar. 
In a low but clear voice he read it to its conclusion. 

There was a moment's pause after he had fin- 
ished, and then the quartet sang the four verses 
of that other hymn, so dear to the man above 
whose bier the mourners stood, that as he passed 
into the last unconsciousness, his lips formed its 
words after the strength to speak had gone. 

Silently the assembled men and women framed 
with their lips the words of ''Nearer, my God, to 
Thee," as the choir sang it through. Dr. Locke 
raised his hands as the music died away. He 
made this eloquent appeal: ''Let us pray: 

O God, our help in ages past, 

Our hope for years to come, 
Our shelter from the stormy blast 

And our eternal home. 

We, Thy humble servants, beseech Thee for manifesta- 
tions of Thy favor as we come into Thy presence. We laud and 
magnify Thy holy name and praise Thee for all Thy goodness. 
Be merciful unto us and bless us as, stricken with overwhelm- 
ing sorrow, we come unto Thee. 

In this dark night of grief abide with us till the dawning. 
Speak to our troubled souls, God, and give to us in this hour 



BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 52J 

of unutterable grief the peace and quiet which Thy presence 
only can afford. We thank Thee that Thou dost answer the 
sobbing sigh of the heart and dost assure us that if a man die 
he shall live again. We praise Thee for Jesus Christ, Thy 
Son, our Savior and elder brother; that He came "to l)ring life 
and immortality to light," and because He lives we shall live 
also. We thank Thee that death is victory, that ' 'to die is gain. " 

Have mercy upon us in this dispensation of Thy proW- 
dence. We believe in Thee — we trust Thee — our God of love, 
"the same yesterday, to-day and forever." 

"We thank Thee for the unsullied life of Thy servant, our 
martj'i'ed President, whom Thou hast taken to his coronation, 
and we pi'ay for the final triumph of all the divine principles 
of pure character and free government for which he stood 
while he lived, and which were baptized by his blood in his 
death. 

Hear our prayer for blessings of consolation upon all 
those who were associated with him in the administration of 
the affairs of the government; especially vouchsafe Thy presence 
to Thy servant who has been suddenly called to assume the 
holy responsibilities of our chief magistrate. 

God, bless our dear nation, and guide the ship of state 
through stormy seas. Help Thy people to be brave to fight 
the battles of the Lord, and wise to solve all the problems of 
freedom. 

Graciously hear us for comforting blessings to rest upon 
the family circle of our departed friend. Tenderly sustain 
Thine handmaiden, upon whom the blow of this sorrow most 
heavily falls. Accompany her, God, as Thou has promised, 
through this dark valley and shadow, and may she fear no evil, 
because Thou are with her. 

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, 
the father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us 
all evermore. Amen. 



530 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 

As Dr. Locke began repeating the Lord's pray. )i: 
the mourners joined with him, and all bowed low 
their heads as he pronounced the benediction. 

Then a man, who seemed suddenly to have 
grown old, rose from his seat beside Governor 
Odell and slowly walked alone past the line of cab- 
inet officers and to the side of the new President. 

His hands clasped behind his back, his head 
bent down on his great chest, Senator Hanna 
stood and gazed for the last time on the face of 
the man he loved. It seemed to the mom^ners that 
he stood there looking down at his dead friend's 
face for fully five minutes. In reality it was 
nearly two minutes before he turned, and slowly, 
sadly retraced his steps across the room. 

As Senator Hanna sat down the casket was 
closed and the soldiers and sailors advanced from 
the points where they had been stationed. Lift- 
ing it gently they slowly began their solemn march 
to the hearse, which stood waiting outside. Close 
behind the casket followed President Eoosevelt, 
with Secretary Root on his left and the other mem- 
bers of the cabinet following. Slowly, very slowly, 
they took their way into the hall, out the front 
door, down the steps and down the walk to the 
hearse, while a band posted across the street 
softly played ''Nearer, My God, to Thee." 

As the funeral cortege passed slowly down Del- 
aware avenue the httle host that had Ustened to 
the services, filed quietly out of the house. 



BURIAL OF McKTNLEY. 531 

Mrs. McKinley did not accompany the cortege 
from the house. As the services were nearing an 
end she exhibited marked signs of exhaustion and 
Dr. Rixey and her other companions gently hfted 
her from her seat and led her to a room. 

Then they closed the door that she might not 
hear the rhythmic tread of the marching soldiers 
as they escorted the casket from the house. She 
was utterly worn out and within a few seconds had 
lapsed into slumber. 

The funeral cortege left the Milburn house at 
11:45 o'clock. Slowly and solemnly, in time to 
the funeral march, it moved between two huge 
masses of men, women and children, stretching 
away two miles and a half to the city hall. Nearly 
two hours were required to traverse the distance. 

During the afternoon and night the President's 
body lay in state in the city hall. Such a sponta- 
neous outpouring of people to show their regard 
for a man whom they had admired and loved from a 
distance was never equaled on this earth under 
like circumstances. 

The hours during which the pubhc was to be 
permitted to view the remains had been set from 
1 to 6 o'clock. More than twice as many as could 
hope to get through the lines in that time came 
from all over western New York until fully 200,000 
were massed during the morning. In the face of 
such a concourse the hmit was extended, but the 



532 BURIAL OF McKIx^LEY 

patient thousands did not know it. They merely 
stayed on through the storm and hoped. 

For nearly ten hours they streamed through the 
city hall corridor where the President lay, passing 
in two lines which formed faster than they melted. 
Ten thousand an hour flowed past until weather 
and physical collapse wore out other thousands and 
the thin line ended at 11 o'clock at night. 

In the afternoon Mrs. McKinley begged to be 
taken to her husband. When told that the body 
had been carried to the city hall, where the people 
were to have an opportunity to see it, she de- 
manded that it be brought back to her. He was 
her husband, she had a right to him. The people 
had all his best years, his strength, his life. In 
death he was hers, and she would have her rights. 

Hysterically she cried aloud for him again and 
again. A council of the family was hastily called, 
and some favored sending for the remains of the 
President in order to calm the anguish of the widow 
with the soothing sense of possession. But at 
this moment Mrs. Hob art, widow of the Vice 
President, succeeded in convincing Mrs. McKin- 
ley that it was her duty to let the people see the 
face of their beloved President. 

Thanks to the strong influence which Mrs. 
Hobart has always exerted over her friend, Mrs. 
McKinley was finally calmed and induced to lie 
down and try to sleep. Dr. Rixey prepared an- 



BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 533 

other glass of medicine and the crisis was momen- 
tarily over. 

Later in the day the unhappy woman again 
demanded the body of her husband, but for the 
second time she was comforted by her loving 
I friends. 

Mrs. McKinley's anguish over her loss was the 
'Saddest and most pathetic demonstration in the 
awful tragedy. 

After lying in state at the Buffalo city hall the 
remains of President McKinley were brought to 
Washington by special train, September 16. The 
route was 420 miles long, passing through dense 
masses of people in every city, town and hamlet. 
Everywhere were signs of deepest mourning. The 
train drew into the depot at Washington at 8:38 
in the evening, and the body was taken to the 
White House, where it was guarded during the 
night by veterans of the Civil War. 

At 9 o'clock on the following day the funeral 
parade formed at the White House and started for 
the rotunda of the capitol where the funeral ser- 
vices were held. These were opened by the choir of 
the Metropolitan M. E. church, where Mr. Mc- 
Kinley had been a worshiper, singing "Lead, Kind- 
ly Light." The Rev. Henry R. Naylor offered the 
invocation and Bishop Andrews dehvered the fun- 
eral address. This was followed by the choir ^ .ng- 
ing "Some Time We'll Understand." The oene- 



534 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 

diction was prononnced by the Rev. W. H. Chap- 
man. Following this came one of the most dra- 
matic incidents of the ceremony. The choir 
began to softly syllable the first lines of the 
hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee." For several 
hnes the choir alone followed the melodion in 
the time. Then the volume of the song was 
audibly increased. A few of the audience, unable 
to restrain themselves, had joined their voices with 
those of the chosen singers. Their example was 
followed timidly by others until the dome rang 
with the notes of the solemn and beloved song. 

President Roosevelt murmured the words of the 
song along with the other auditors. The lines of his 
face, which had been hard with the rigidity of the 
trial and grief, softened into an expression of the 
tenderest sympathy as his lips moved in singing the 
hymn. Grover Cleveland, the very embodiment 
of stately dignity, seemed even more dignified as 
his lips parted with a barely perceptible motion in 
response to the rhythm of the hymn. Officers of 
the army and navy, who had seen death in its worst 
form without a tremor and possibly who had not 
sung a church hymn for many years, hummed the 
tune when they could not remember the words. 
All eyes were streaming with tears. 

A respectful silence followed the end of the hymn 
which marked the conclusion of the funeral services. 
A few moments elapsed and then the rotunda was 



ita 



1 






534 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 

diction was pronounced by the Rev. W. H. Chap- 
man. Following this came one of the most dra- 
matic incidents of the ceremony. The choir 
began to softly syllable the first lines of the 
hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee." For several 
Hnes the choir alone followed the melodion in 
the time. Then the volume of the song was 
audibly increased. A few of the audience, unable 
to restrain themselves, had joined their voices with 
those of the chosen singers. Their example was 
followed timidly by others until the dome rang 
with the notes of the solemn and beloved song. 

President Roosevelt murmured the words of the 
song along with the other auditors. The lines of his 
face, which had been hard with the rigidity of the 
trial and grief, softened into an expression of the 
tenderest sympathy as his lips moved in singing the 
hymn. Grover Cleveland, the very embodiment 
of stately dignity, seemed even more dignified as 
his lips parted with a barely perceptible motion in 
response to the rhythm of the hymn. Ofiicers of 
the army and navy, who had seen death in its worst 
form without a tremor and possibly who had not 
sung a church hymn for many years, hummed the 
tune when they could not remember the words. 
All eyes were streaming with tears. 

A respectful silence followed the end of the hymn 
which marked the conclusion of the funeral services. 
A few moments elapsed and then the rotunda was 



BURIAL OF Mckinley. 535 

cleared for the body to lie in state to be viewed by 
the great multitude who were crowding the steps 
ready to pass through in double file on either side 
of the coffin. The flag was draped back from the 
head of the casket, the velvet-covered hd was re- 
moved and the President's face was exposed to the 
light which poured in through the upper windows 
of the dome. 

In the evening the body was removed by special 
train to the McKinley home in Canton. All along 
the route were evidences of the deepest mourning. 
Everywhere people had gathered to catch a glimpse 
of the train that was bearing away forever all that 
was earthly of their beloved President. 

The funeral services at Canton were held Thurs- 
day, September 19. The removal of the remains 
from the old homestead to the First Methodist 
Church, where the services were held, levied the 
hardest tribute upon the sorrow and love of the 
people of Canton. Mrs. McKinley lingered by 
the bier up to the moment it was lifted to be borne 
from the house to the hearse. She wept hyster- 
ically and refused to be comforted when led away 
to her room. She did not attend the church ser- 
vices or the ceremonies at the receiving vault in 
the cemetery. 

The casket was covered with purple orchids and 
white roses. Every head within a block of the 
residence was bared when the hearse, drawn by 



536 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 

four black horses, and under heavy escort, led the 
way to the church. 

The pulpit was a wilderness of flowers, purple 
predominating. There were forty-six large pieces 
on the platform, 200 in the vestibules. A small 
portrait of the dead President was placed at the 
head of the bier, which was spread with the 
national colors and caught in a knot of black cord 
at the corner. 

Just above the pulpit was a panel of red roses 
with a harp made of white immortelles. At the 
right of the platform was a mammoth shield worked 
in roses and bearing the letters ''G. A. K.," and 
on the opposite wing of the platform was a wreath 
of white and purple roses bearing the inscription 
" Our Comrade." This was presented by the late 
President's old regiment, the Twenty-third Ohio. 
All the floral decorations were caught with white 
and purple ribbons. The balconies were festooned 
with graceful curves of black cashmere, while the 
vestibules were a solid mass of black. 

All was hushed when the great church organ 
played Beethoven's '' Funeral March." Some of 
the auditors wept, others strained their eyes to- 
ward the sable vestibule where it was expected 
the casket would enter. Still others looked rue- 
fully at the old pew of President McKinley, which 
was entirely covered with black cloth. This pew 
is four seats from the front in the left center sec- 



BURIAL OF Mckinley. 537 

tion of the churoh. It was not occupied during 
the services. 

While the fingers of the organist still lingered 
over the keys, a band without played "Lead, 
Kindly Light," and the flower-laden casket con- 
taining the remains of the late President was borne 
into the church and laid on the bier. President 
Koosevelt led the funeral party. He was ushered 
into the second pew from the front of the right 
central section. 

After the casket was placed the organ rendered 
''Nearer, My God, to Thee." Eev. 0. B. Milhgan, 
pastor of the Canton Presbyterian church, offered 
prayer. A ladies' quartet then rendered an orig- 
inal hymn, entitled " The Beautiful Isle of Some- | 
where." A mixed quartet sang ''Lead, Kindly I 
Light." This was followed by a scriptm-e reading ^ 
from the nineteenth psalm, by Dr. John A. Hall, 4 
pastor of Trinity Lutheran church. Eev. E. P. | 
Herrick, pastor of the Trinity Eeformed church, 7^ 
read from Corinthians xv, 41-58. | 

Eev. C. E. Manchester, pastor of the church, } 

dehvered the funeral sermon. No text was j 

announced. The purpose of the speaker was to I 

pay a tribute to his friend and parishoner. The ' 

sermon abounded in personal anecdotes illustrating ;^ 

the Christian character of the illustrious dead. a 

At the close of the sermon Bishop L. W. Joyce, ,1 

of Minneapolis, offered a fervent prayer. " Nearer, 1 



538 BURIAL OF McKINLEy. 

My Grod, to Thee " was sung again. It was the 
benediction to a notable service. A moment's 
silence, a word of prayer and the guard again bore 
aloft the casket. The funeral was over. 

Through a parted sea of humanity extending 
more than two miles the funeral car of the dead 
President was drawn to its long home in Westlawn 
cemetery. With measured tread and slow stride 
Lieutenant General Miles headed the file of army 
and navy officers who walked at the right of the 
hearse. 

President Eoosevelt could be seen through the 
open windows of his carriage, but his face was as 
expressionless as alabaster, save for the expression 
of sorrow Vv^hich overcast the features of all. 
Chopin's funeral march was the prevailing strain 
in the band music, while minute guns played from 
the crest of Westlawn cemetery as the solemn 
column wound its way westward and northward. 

As the funeral party neared the approach to the 
cemetery the way was strewn with sweet peas, which 
had been sent in large quantities to Canton by the 
school children of Nashville, Tenn. Members of 
the Twenty-third Ohio, McKinley's old regiment, 
wept as they picked up the pretty flowers and 
tucked them away in the lapels of their coats. 

The mausoleum where the body of the dead 
President will await the great monument that will 
be erected in his memory was a bower of roses. 



BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 539 

When the funeral party reached the receiving 
vault the casket was received by the old guard of 
regulars and jackies and borne to the vault be- 
tween two lines. President Eoosevelt was the 
first to move towards the vault. He was escorted 
by Colonel Bingham and took a position at the 
right of the mausoleum door, Secretary Eoot 
standing at the head of the left line. The mem- 
bers of the cabinet were disposed on both sides of 
the pathway leading to the vault, with the army 
chiefs on the right and navy officials on the left. 

As the flower-laden casket reached the portals 
of its resting place a salvo of artillery was fired. 
Abner McKinley, the President's brother, and his 
wife followed the remains to the door and were 
succeeded by other members of the family. 

Bishop Joyce read the Methodist burial service, 
consisting of the chapter in Eevelations describing 
the vision of the holy city, and offered a brief 
prayer. Secretary Wilson wept as the preacher 
spoke the solemn Hnes: "Earth to earth, ashes 
to ashes, dust to dust." 

After the relatives had returned to their car- 
riages, taps were sounded by eight buglers of the 
G. A. B. As the last silvery note of the bugles 
died away sentries were posted at the door of the 
receiving vault and the party turned to go. The 
beloved fellow citizen had been laid to his final 
rest amid the weeping of a nation. 



^^P'^BPSilPPSPiP*..,^ . ^.■it^.irii'jfjjft.w^iia i aif^pM^ 



540 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 

On the day of the funeral services at Cant on j 
business was suspended throughout the country 
and the doors of every business house of any 
respectable pretentions were closed. Memorial 
services were conducted in the churches and me- 
morial parades were held in the larger cities. For 
five minutes after 2:30 o'clock there was absolute 
silence and quiet in the cities, except the tolhng 
of church bells. Parades stopped and stood at 
attention, street cars stopped while the men con- 
ducting them stood with bared heads, telegraph 
instruments ceased clicking, and railway trains 
wherever they were stopped. Never before in the 
history of the nation had there been such a general 
demonstration of sorrow and such an outward 
exhibition of respect for the illustrious dead. 



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